
/ 

•> 






T.* • ; 

U < ^ 





Ik ' • ’-’ 'y-v-iSTB! '■ • i' 

' ^ i>)!(uiit ..X - \ m 






-r' 




■m- 





VrinL^w/ . - ' - ■ ' . V>^ - *-— ' ■:''' ' / £_ ' 

" - -;^;:'h;, 

' > 


- - r 

.> '-v .'^^- 1 - 

^ \ . ^ 

*'r '* ^ K 

■ ' ■■ 

” • ^ • A t 




h 


V- •r^^. 4 T 

'Si 




.-V. 


m' 


\\i< -; '^'•-^..■. • f .. ..'■'^;’'T’^^' 

/v ^r*;- 






•• j t. 


\r ’ ✓ 




* 


y ; 



r ' 


* ’ Al' 

. wa. f 


M 


■f -■ 


' 1;- 

-uv: 


1 ^' '- • 
' '•,/ 




S V 


iih 


i .♦ 


iW: 


. t^-vV*' ^ ’V > \ v ’ 

w;.: 

. t- ' '■ 


# / 


■iL' 7t‘- . <-^ 

•i- H-? - {»J 

/ ■ f'‘ 




‘V-' 


# ^ 


'■A ▼ 




? f , •*"' ■■ 


j . -‘ ' • ‘ » 












.:n- • ? 


•A • ‘ 


It ®‘''' .I' 








/ . 


• ^'' '■ 


'^y*' rti' 


^ r 






.'* _« 


;'r< 


;/ .v 


L* t, ♦ 


■'S v r 


.41^'’'. .'■* 









w-r* * 


•A 


i.'-w' ■ •! i 'iv' iiiT-;^ 

y-‘ 'y. 


::^ M".-; 

f- * • ^ 




.t I > 


A * ■ \ 



-i-*. 



rJ 


;* i'f 


. 1 ^ 


*rc.>) /•' 1 ^ * '»' :iv£‘ 

Wsy-:,!.;; "m 




5^1 


■ % 


,, *, .‘ J . -^ UA;4-^ / ... -.■«—' 

KWJ ^ V M- 1^ 

’ -V^ . ' ^ ;■ 


■^' 












f.' 




■ t.^ V-*i '•><>!■ ■ 


A 


t . *• r ' I 1 

■' • ■ ^ ’ i '■ [Q ^ 


. 'v 



/ 




> r 9 

■ r,>^ 



ls’7‘ « V ‘ S k. •. ' W > M.: ^ 'T* 

^' ‘ ** ^ vt ' ^\'\ 7 . •*■ * >'k ‘ ^*^t' 


Wiy' 


V k- «, »< 




* .'-V >2 ' 








79 ' ■ '• ^ ‘ 


* 


*■> 


'Kt " 


■ •: .;' 


( < 


r 


i*'. - 


,t': 

” I 


l; 




J:;_ - j,:- ., 9 


M. 


;* 


■ •‘;. 

1 »/*^'-.' 


’ • 


* K-l ; • 





i|i» 


£1 




i 

< 

i 


>*' 

•V •^ 


>. 






t-l 








. y 


'JT -4>M 9 

S^r ; ’^ ■ 

W .-Fi- ^ !^ • ., M . ' 

.'.i . • ‘".if 'Tk.' • '^ 

i*-' ■:-. : ■. 

> '-■ 1- /•': <•■ .' w' . ‘ ' 


if 


f 

I t 


». iV 

7’ ^ 

^4'- 


' 1 : 


\^' ' 
IT. . 




10 

k 



: • • 


■■r-.Tf^-y 


■■ ^ V>' ■'/■V; '' 


i > .• ''5v rrv 
BramA-''. ■^^;(ji; 

HBinfe •• ' . \ 'r. 

^r-v 7'. ., 

:I.':':-"^v:?» JgS 


J • 



NT' 


.1 


k ■* ' • ••^ 





J ^ 







‘ .♦• 



•■’«<■'. »lr.- ■ 

• 7 V. 

'-ii ‘'''i»Jli.-i ^ i:i& 







y 


' / 




' Hf .. A 

Ml.^ -■■■'^•■V--. 

,, l^:',ife..''^.* 

iWt of ' 


-.r V 


4 I 
' “1 


t. 



■ ■ ^v; 


ngw™ ■ r.>- . ,.v-- o.— ’^•■-' ■ .V '■>- ,, ■•..■'•'--*■ ''■ *■ ' ’" ' * 

iJia ■ i 



i ' *. -•• » 

1 w.^ w 




m 

* t » 


4 


• < 


f 



^ ' • 



f 


* 





i 


« 


I 



t 


' 


I 


i -4 


/. 








, 9 


» 


I 


9 


V 



4 







4 




( 




I 


I 



4 




THE PIRATE. 


Nothing in him 

But doth suffer a sea- change. 

TemptsL 







^nbrctn 2.ang lEbition 


The Pirate 

By Sir Walter Scott, Bart. 


With Introductory Essay and Notes 
by Andrew Lang ^ ^ Illustrated 



Dana Estes & Company 
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Publishers 
s t o n 





Copyright, iSgs 

By Estes & Lauriat 




« • 
« c « 



anljreto l-ang lEDition. 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

THE PIRATE. 

Volume I. 

PAGE 

Mordaunt in Yellowley’s Cottage . Frontispiece 
The Sword Dance 234 


Volume II. 

Minna on the Cliff . 

The Pirate’s Council . 

Minna taking the Pistol . 


. 103 

. 208 

. 250 


« 


\ 


» * 


c 



h 

’ I 


/ 




f k ^ - 


'Vnrfyii:- 





'.v',01 i A,.) i ,. ',1,1] :.0 Triaj 


’.y- . ■■ 




’ ■ 


. \ 


' . 








v'* '- 

?»!'■: ',.‘® 


O^r 


■^:a"!I' dtrr 


I .•' f.' ’ ' ■ ; / 


1 t 


' 1 't 


: ' V«1 ’ t,'A 


H'.i ■ i. r; 1 1 ■ ' :•, • ■ 1 ,' 


i.i. ]5lT.J,J,T >7 


•'■' It,!'' am.'- h ;',:i 




. < ')Vi: I-- r' IT/./'*!''' r 

i 

. .' O 1. .-;i I T f JV, f X i» T Arl J'f i ' u 


I 

^ f! 

* 




i 


I 




.v/j^ 


r 





i'iilitit 


1 


h: 


4 >* 


EDITORS INTKODUCTION 


TO 

; THE PIKATE. 

The circumstances in which ^‘The Pirate” was com- 
posed have for the Editor a peculiar interest. He has 
many times scribbled at the old bureau in Chiefs wood 
whereon Sir Walter worked at his novel, and sat in 
summer weather beneath the great tree on the lawn 
where Erskine used to read the fresh chapters to Lock- 
hart and his wife, while the burn murmured by from 
the Phymer’s Glen. So little altered is the cottage of 
Chiefswood by the addition of a gabled wing in the 
same red stone as the older portion, so charmed a quiet 
has the place, in the shelter of Eildon Hill, that there 
one can readily beget the golden time again, and think 
oneself back into the day when Mustard and Spice, run- 
ning down the shady glen, might herald the coming of 
the Sheriff himself. Happy hours and gone : like that 
summer of 1821, whereof Lockhart speaks with an emo- 
tion the more touching because it is so rare, — 

the first of several seasons, which will ever dwell on my mem- 
ory as the happiest of my life. We were near enough Abbots- 
ford to partake as often as we liked of its brilliant society ; 
yet could do so without being exposed to the worry and exhaus- 
tion of spirit which the daily reception of new visitors entailed 
upon all the society except Sir Walter himself. But, in truth, 
even he was not always proof against the annoyances con- 
nected with such a style of open-house-keeping. Even his tem- 
per sank sometimes under the solemn applause of learned dul- 
ness, the vapid raptures of painted and periwigged dowagers^ 


X 


EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION’ TO 


the horse-leech avidity with which underbred foreigners urged 
their questions, and the pompous simpers of condescending 
magnates. When sore beset in this way, he would every now 
and then discover that he had some very particular business to 
attend to on an outlying part of his estate, and, craving the in- 
dulgence of his guests overnight, appear at the cabin in the 
glen before its inhabitants were astir in the morning. The 
clatter of Sibyl Grey’s hoofs, the yelping of Mustard and Spice, 
and his own joyous shout of reveillee under our window, were 
the signal that he had burst his bonds, and meant for that day 
to take his ease in his inn. . . . After breakfast he would take 
possession of a dressing-room upstairs, and write a chapter of 
“ The Pirate ” ; and then, having made up and dispatched his 
parcel for Mr. Ballantyne, away to join Purdie where the for- 
esters were at work. . . . 

The constant and eager delight with which Erskine watched 
the progress of the tale has left a deep impression on my 
memory : and indeed I heard so many of its chapters first 
read from the MS. by him, that I can never open the book now 
without thinking I hear his voice. Sir Walter used to give 
him at breakfast the pages he had written that morning, and 
very commonly, while he was again at work in his study, 
Erskine would walk over to Chiefswood, that he might have 
the pleasure of reading them aloud to my wife and me under 
our favourite tree. ' 

^^The tree is living yet ! ’’ This long quotation 
from a book but too little read in general may be ex- 
cused for its interest, as bearing on the composition of 
The Pirate, in the early autumn of 1821. In The 
Pirate Scott fell back on his recollections of the 
Orcades, as seen by him in a tour with the Commission- 
ers of Light Houses, in August 1814, immediately after 

1 Lockhart, vi. 388-393. Erskine died before Scott, slain by a 
silly piece of gossip, and Mr. Skene says : “ I never saw Sir Wal- 
ter so much affected by any event, and at the funeral, which he 
attended, he was quite unable to suppress his feelings, but wept 
like a child.” His correspondence with Scott fell into the hands of 
a lady, who, seeing that it revealed the secret of Scott’s authorship, 
most unfortunately burned all the letters. (Journal, i. 416.) 


THE PIRATE. 


xi 


the publication of Waverley.’’ They were accom- 
panied by Mr. Stevenson, the celebrated engineer, ‘^a 
most gentlemanlike and modest man, and well known 
by his scientific skill.” ^ It is understood that Mr. 
Stevenson also kept a diary, and that it is to be pub- 
lished by the care of his distinguished grandson, Mr. 
Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Kidnapped,” 
‘‘The Master of Ballantrae,” and other novels in which 
Scott would have recognised a not alien genius. 

Sir Walter’s Diary, read in company with “ The 
Pirate,” offers a most curious study of his art in com- 
position. It maybe said that he scarcely noted a nat 
ural feature, a monument, a custom, a superstition, or a 
legend in Zetland and Orkney which he did not weave 
into the magic web of his romance. In the Diary all 
those matters appear as very ordinary; in “ The Pirate ” 
they are transfigured in the light of fancy. History 
gives Scott the career of Gow and his betrothal to an 
island lady: observation gives him a few headlands, 
Piets’ houses, ruined towers, and old stone monuments, 
and his characters gather about these, in rhythmic array, 
like the dancers in the sword-dance. We may conceive 
that Cleveland, like Gow, was originally meant to die, 
and that Minna, like Margaret in the ballad of Clerk 
Saunders, was to recover her troth from the hand of 
her dead lover. But, if Scott intended this, he was 
good-natured, and relented. 

Taking the incidents in the Diary in company with 
the novel, we find, in the very first page of “ The 
Pirate,” mention of the roost, or rost, of Sumburgh, 
the running current of tidal water, which he hated so, 
because it made him so sea-sick. “All the landsmen 
sicker than sick, and our Viceroy, Stevenson, qualmish. 
It is proposed to have a light on Sumburgh Head. 

1 Scott’s Diary, July 29, 1814. Lockhart, vi. 183. 


xii 


EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION TO 


Fitful Head is higher, hut is to the west, from which 
quarter few vessels come.’’ As for Sumburgh Head, 
Scott climbed it, rolled down a rock from the summit, 
and found it fine situation to compose an ode to the 
Genius of Sumburgh Head, or an Elegy upon a Cor- 
morant — or to have written or spoken madness of any 
kind in prose or poetry. But I gave vent to my excited 
feelings in a more simple way, and, sitting gently 
down on the steep green slope which led to the beach, 
I e’en slid down a few hundred feet, and found the ex- 
ercise quite an adequate vent to my enthusiasm.” 

Sir Walter was certainly not what he found Mrs. 
Hemans, “ too poetical.” 

In the first chapter, his Giffords, Scotts (of Scots- 
tarvet, the Fifeshire house, not of the Border clan), 
and Mouats are the very gentry who entertained him 
on his tour. His ‘‘plantie cruives,” in the novel, had 
been noted in the Diary (Lockhart, iv. 193). “Pate 
Stewart,” the oppressive Earl, is chronicled at length 
in “the Diary.” “ His huge tower remains wild and 
desolate — its chambers filled with sand, and its rifted 
walls and dismantled battlements giving unrestrained 
access to the roaring sea-blast.” So Scott wrote in his 
last review for the “Quarterly,” a criticism of Pit- 
cairn’s “ Scotch Criminal Trials ” (1831). The Trows, 
or Drows, the fairy dwarfs he studied on the spot, and 
connects the name with Dwerg, though Trolls seem 
rather to he their spiritual and linguistic ancestors. 
The affair of the clergyman who was taken for a Pecht, 
or Piet, actually occurred during the tour, and Mr. 
Stevenson, who had met the poor Pecht before, was 
able to clear his character.^ In the same place the 
Kraken is mentioned : he had been visible for nearly a 
fortnight, but no sailor dared go near him. 


1 See Author’s Note No. I. 


THE PIRATE. 


xiii 


He lay in the offing a fortnight or more, 

But the devil a Zetlander put from the shore. 

If your Grace thinks I’m writing the thing that is not, 

You may ask at a namesake of ours, Mr. Scott, 

Sir Walter wrote to the Duke of Buccleugh. He paid 
a visit to an old lady, who, like Norna, and .dSolus in 
the Odyssey, kept the winds in a bag, and could sell a 
fair breeze. She was a miserable figure, upwards of 
ninety, she told me, and dried up like a mummy. A 
sort of clay-coloured cloak, folded over her head, cor- 
responded in colour to her corpse-like complexion. 
Fine light-blue eyes, and nose and chin that almost 
met, and a ghastly expression of cunning gave her quite 
the effect of Hecate. She told us she remembered Oow 
the Pirate^ betrothed to a Miss Gordon, — so here are 
the germs of Norna, Cleveland, and Minna, all sown in 
good ground, to bear fruit in seven years (1814-1821). 
Triptolemus Yellowley is entirely derived from the 
Diary, and is an anachronism. The Lowland Scots 
factors and ploughs were only coming in while Scott 
was in the isles. He himself saw the absurd little 
mills (vol. i. ch. xi.), and the one stilted plough which 
needed two women to open the furrows, a feebler plough 
than the Virgilian specimens which one still remarks 
in Tuscany. ‘‘When this precious machine was in 
motion, it was dragged by four little bullocks, yoked 
abreast, and as many ponies harnessed, or rather strung, 
to the plough by ropes and thongs of raw hide. . . . 
An antiquary might be of opinion that this was the 
very model of the original plough invented by Trip- 
tolemus, son of the Eleusinian king, who sheltered 
Demeter in her wanderings. The sword-dance was not 
danced for Scott’s entertainment, hut he heard of the 
Pupa dancers, and got a copy of the accompanying 
chant, and was presented with examples of the flint 
and bronze Celts which Norna treasured. All over the 


XlV 


EDITOR’S introduction TO 


world, as in Zetland, they were regarded as ‘^thunder 
stones.’’ (Diary; Lockhart, iv. 220.) The bridal of 
Norna, by clasping of hands through Odin’s stone ring, 
was still practised as a form of betrothal. (Lockhart, iv. 
252. ) Some island people were despised, as by Magnus 
Troil, as “ poor sneaks ” who ate limpets, the last of 
human meannesses.” The wells,” or smooth wave- 
currents, were also noted, and the Garland of the 
whalers often alluded to in the tale. The Stones of 
Stennis were visited, and the Dwarfie Stone of Hoy, 
where Norna, like some Eskimo Angekok, met her 
familiar demon. Scott' held that the stone ^‘prob- 
ably was meant as the temple of some northern edition 
of the dii Manes. They conceive that the dwarf may 
be seen sometimes sitting at the door of his abode, but 
he vanishes on a nearer approach.” The dwelling of 
Norna, a Piet’s house, with an overhanging story, 
“shaped like a dice-box,” is the ancient Castle of 
Mousa. ^ The strange incantation of Norna, the drop- 
ping of molten lead into water, is also described. 
Usually the lead was poured through the wards of a 
key. In affections of the heart, like Minna’s, a tri- 
angular stone, probably a neolithic arrow-head, was usu- 
ally employed as an amulet. (Lockhart, iv. 208.) Even 
the story of the pirate’s insolent answer to the Provost 
is adapted from a recent occurrence. Two whalers were 
accused of stealing a sheep. The first denied the charge, 
but said he had seen the animal carried off by “a fel- 
low with a red nose and a black wig. Don’t you think 
he was like his honour, Tom ?” ‘^By God, Jack, I 
believe it was the very man.” (Diary; Lockhart, iv. 
222; “The Pirate,” vol. ii. ch. xiv.) The goldless 
Northern Ophir was also visited — in brief, Scott scarcely 
made a remark on his tour which he did not manage to 


Diary ; Lockhart, iv. 223. 


THE PIRATE. 


XV 


transmute into the rare metal of his romance. It is no 
wonder that the Orcadians at once detected his author- 
ship. A trifling anecdote of the cruise has recently- 
been published. Scott presented a lady in the isles 
with a piano, which, it seems, is still capable of pro- 
ducing a melancholy jingling tune. ^ 

Lockhart says, as to the reception of ^‘The Pirate” 
(Dec. 1821): The wild freshness of the atmosphere of 
this splendid romance, the beautiful contrast of Minna 
and Brenda, and the exquisitely drawn character of 
Captain Cleveland, found the reception which they de- 
served.” ‘^The wild freshness of the atmosphere” is 
indeed magically transfused, and breathes across the 
pages as it blows over the Fitful Head, the skerries, 
the desolate moors, the plain of the Standing Stones of 
Stennis. The air is keen and salt and fragrant of the 
sea. Yet Sydney Smith was greatly disappointed. 

I am afraid this novel will depend upon the former 
reputation of the author, and will add nothing to it. 
It may sell, and another may half sell, but that is all, 
unless he comes out with something vigorous, and re- 
deems himself. I do not blame him for writing him- 
self out, if he knows he is doing so, and has done his 
best,) and his all. If the native land of Scotland will 
supply no more scenes and characters, for he is always 
best in Scotland, though he was very good in England the 
(time) he was there; but pray, wherever the scene is 
laid, no more Meg Merrilies and Dominie Sampsons — 
very good the first and second times, but now quite 
worn out, and always recurring.” (‘‘ Archibald Con- 
stable,” iii. 69.) 

It was Smith’s grammar that gave out, and pro- 
duced no apodosis to his phrase. Scott could not write 
himself out, before his brain was affected by dis- 


1 “ Atalanta,” December 1892. 


xvi 


EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION TO 


ease. Had his age been miraculously prolonged, with 
health, it could never be said that ^^all the stories 
have been told,” and he would have delighted man- 
kind unceasingly. 

Scott himself was a little nettled by the criticisms 
of Norna as a replica of Meg Merrilies. She is, in- 
deed, something distinct from the Dumfriesshire 
gipsy ” — in truth, she rather resembles the Ulrica of 
^^Ivanhoe.” Like her, she is haunted by the memory 
of an awful crime, an insane version of a mere acci- 
dent; like her, she is a votaress of the dead gods of the 
older world, Thor and Odin, and the spirits of the 
tempest. Scott’s imagination lived so much in the past 
that the ancient creeds never ceased to allure him: like 
Heine, he felt the fascination of the banished deities, not 
of Greece, but of the North. Thus NTorna, crazed by her 
terrible mischance, dwells among them, worships the 
Red Beard, as outlying descendants of the Aztecs yet 
retain some faith in their old monstrous Pantheon. 
Even Minna keeps, in her girlish enthusiasm, some 
touch of Freydis in the saga of Eric the Red : for her 
the old gods and the old years are not wholly exiled 
and impotent. All this is most characteristic of the 
antiquary and the poet in Scott, who lingers fondly 
over what has been, and stirs the last faint embers of 
fallen fires. It is of a piece with the harmless Jacob- 
itism of his festivals, when they sang 

Here’s to the King, boys ! 

Ye ken wha I mean, boys. 

In the singularly feeble and provincial vulgarities 
which Borrow launches, in the appendix to ‘^Lavengro,” 
against the memory of Scott, the charge of reviving 
Catholicism is the most bitter. That rowdy evangelist 
might as well have charged Scott with a desire to re- 
store the worship of Odin, and to sacrifice human vie- 


THE riRATE. 


xvii 


tims on the stone altar of Stennis. He saw in Orkney 
the ruined fanes of the Norse deities, as at Melrose of 
the Virgin, and his loyal heart could feel for all that 
was old and lost, for all into which men had put their 
hearts and faiths, had made, and had unmade, in the 
secular quest for the divine. Like a later poet, he 
might have said: — 

Not as their friend or child I speak, 

But as on some far Northern strand, 

Thinking of his own gods, a Greek 
In pity and mournful awe might stand 
Beside some fallen Runic stone, 

For both were gods, and both are gone. 

And surely no creed is more savage, cruel, and worthy 
of death than Sorrow’s belief in a Grod who “knew 
where to strike,” and deliberately struck Scott by in- 
ducing Robinson to speculate in hops, and so bring down 
his Edinburgh associate. Constable, and with him Sir* 
Walter ! Such was the religion which Borrow ex- 
pressed in the style of a writer in a fourth-rate country 
newspaper. We might prefer the frank Heathenism of 
the Bed Beard to the religion of the author of “The 
Bible in Spain.” 

There is no denying that Scott had in his imagina- 
tion a certain mould of romance, into which his ideas, 
when he wrote most naturally, and most for his own 
pleasure, were apt to run. It is one of the charms of 
“The Pirate ” that here he is manifestly writing for 
his own pleasure, with a certain boyish eagerness. 
Had we but the plot of one of the tales which he told, 
as a lad, to his friend Irving, we might find that it 
turned on a romantic mystery, a clue in the hands of 
some witch or wise woman, of some one who was al- 
ways appearing in the nick of time, was always round 
the corner when anything was to be heard. This is a 


xviii 


EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION TO 


standing characteristic of the tales: now it is Edie 
Ochiltree, now Flibbertigibbet, now Meg Merrilies, 
now NTorna, who holds the thread of the plot, but these 
characters are all well differentiated. Again, he had 
types, especially the pedantic type, which attracted 
him, but they vary as much as Yellowley and Dugald 
Dalgetty, the Antiquary, and Dominie Sampson. Yel- 
lowley is rather more repressed than some of Scott’s 
bores ; but then he is not the only bore, for Claud 
Halcro, with all his merits, is a professed proser. Swift 
had exactly described the character, the episodical nar- 
rator, in a passage parallel to one in Theophrastus. In 
writing to Morritt, Scott says (November 1818): 
sympathise with you for the dole you are dreeing under 
the inflictions of your honest proser. Of all the boring 
machines ever devised, your regular and determined 
story-teller is the most peremptory and powerful in his 
operations.” 

With what perfect placidity he submitted to he 
bored even by bores of the first water! ” says Lockhart. 
The species is one which we all have many opportuni- 
ties of studying, but it may be admitted that Scott pro- 
duced his studies of bores with a certain complacency. 
Yet they are all different bores, and the gay, kind 
scald Halcro is very unlike Master Mumblasen or 
Dotninie Sampson. 

For a hero Mordaunt may be called almost sprightly 
and individual. His mysterious father occasionally 
suggests the influence of Byron, occasionally of Mrs. 
Radcliffe. The Udaller is as individual and genial as 
Dandie Dinmont himself; or, again, he is the Cedric of 
Thule, though much more sympathetic than Cedric to 
most readers. His affection for his daughters is char- 
acteristic and deserved. Many a pair of sisters, blonde 
and hrune, have we met in fiction since Minna and 
Brenda, but none have been their peers, and, like Mor- 


THE pirate. 


xlx 


daunt in early years, we know not to which of them our 
hearts are given. They are “ L’ Allegro ” and II Pen- 
seroso ” of the North, and it is probable that all men 
would fall in love with Minna if they had the chance, 
and marry Brenda, if they, could. Minna is, indeed, 
the ideal youth of poetry, and Brenda of the practical 
life. The innocent illusions of Minna, her love of all 
that is old, her championship of the forlorn cause, her 
beauty, her tenderness, her truth, her passionate way- 
wardness of sorrow, make her one of Scott^s most origi- 
nal and delightful heroines. She believes and trembles 
not, like Bertram in ^^Bokeby.’’ Brenda trembles, 
but does not believe in Norna’s magic, and in the 
spirits of ancient saga. As for Cleveland, Scott man- 
aged to avoid Byron’s Lara-like pirates, and produced 
a freebooter as sympathetic as any hostis humani 
generis can be, while “Frederick Altamont” (Thack- 
eray borrowed the name for his romantic crossing- 
sweeper) has a place among the Marischals and 
Bucklaws of romance. Scott’s minute studies in Dry- 
den come to the aid of his local observations, and so, 
out of not very promising materials, and out of the con- 
trast of Lowland Scot and Orcadian, the romance is 
spun. Probably the “psychological analysis” which 
most interested the author is the double consciousness 
of Norna, the occasional intrusions of the rational self 
on her dreams of supernatural powers. That double 
consciousness, indeed, exists in all of us: occasionally 
the self in which we believe has a vision of the real 
underlying self, and shudders from the sight, like the 
pair “ who met themselves ” in the celebrated drawing. 

“The Pirate” can scarcely be placed in the front 
rank of Scott’s novels, but it has a high and peculiar 
place in the second, and probably will always be among 
the special favourites of those who, being young, are 
fortunate enough not to be critical. 


XX 


EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION. 


Scott’s novels at this time came forth so frequently 
that the lumbering ‘‘ Quarterlies ” toiled after them in 
vain. They adopted the plan of reviewing them in 
hatches, and the ‘^Quarterly” may be said to have 
omitted ^‘The Pirate” altogether. About this time 
Gifford began to find that the person who spoke of a 
‘Mark dialect of Anglified Erse ” was not a competent 
critic, and Mr. Senior noticed several of the tales in a 
more judicious manner. As to “The Pirate,” the 
“ Edinburgh Review ” found “ the character and story 
of Merton n at once commonplace and extravagant.” 
Cleveland disappoints “by turning out so much better 
than we had expected, and yet substantially so ill.” 
“ Nothing can be more beautiful than the description 
of the sisters.” “Norna is a new incarnation of Meg 
Merrilies, and palpably the same in the spirit . . . but 
far above the rank of a mere imitated or borrowed char- 
acter.” “The work, on the whole, opens up a new 
world to our curiosity, and affords another proof of the 
extreme pliability, as well as vigour, of the author’s 
genius.” 

Andrew Lang. 

August 1893 


INTKODUCTION 


TO 

THE PIRATE. 


“ Quoth he, there was a ship.” 

This brief preface may begin like the tale of the An- 
cient Mariner, since it was on shipboard that the author 
acquired the very moderate degree of local knowledge 
and information, hoth of people and scenery, which he 
has endeavoured to embody in the romance of the 
Pirate. 

In the summer and autumn of 1814, the author was 
invited to join a party of Commissioners for the North- 
ern Light-House Service, who proposed making a voyage 
round the coast of Scotland, and through its various 
groups of islands, chiefly for the purpose of seeing the 
condition of the many lighthouses under their direc- 
tion, — edifices so important, whether regarding them 
as benevolent or political institutions. Among the 
commissioners who manage this important public con- 
cern, the sheriff of each county of Scotland which 
borders on the sea, holds ex-officio a place at the Board. 
These gentlemen act in every respect gratuitously, but 
have the use of an armed yacht, well found and fitted 
up, when they choose to visit the lighthouses. An ex- 
cellent engineer, Mr. Bobert Stevenson, is attached to 
the Board, to afford the benefit of his professional ad- 
vice. The author accompanied this expedition as a 


xxii 


INTRODUCTION TO 


guest; for Selkirkshire, though it calls him Sheriff, 
has not, like the kingdom of Bohemia in Corporal 
Trim’s story, a seaport in its circuit, nor its magistrate, 
of course, any place at the Board of Commissioners, — 
a circumstance of little consequence where all were old 
and intimate friends, bred to the same profession, and 
disposed to accommodate each other in every possible 
manner. 

The nature of the important business which was the 
principal purpose of the voyage, was connected with 
the amusement of visiting the leading objects of a trav- 
eller’s curiosity ; for the wild cape, or formidable shelve, 
which requires to be marked out by a lighthouse^ is 
generally at no great distance from the most magnifi- 
cent scenery of rocks, caves, and billows. Our time, 
too, was at our own disposal, and, as most of us were 
freshwater sailors, we could at any time make a fair 
wind out of a foul one, and run before the gale in quest 
of some object of curiosity which lay under our lee. 

With these purposes of public utility and some per- 
sonal amusement in view, we left the port of Leith on 
the 26th J uly, 1814, ran along the east coast of Scotland, 
viewing its different curiosities, stood over to Zetland 
and Orkney, where we were some time detained by the 
wonders of a country which displayed so much that 
was new to us ; and having seen what was curious in 
the Ultima Thule of the ancients, where the sun hardly 
thought it worth while to go to bed, since his rising 
was at this season so early, we doubled the extreme 
northern termination of Scotland, and took a rapid 
survey of the Hebrides, where we found many kind 
friends. There, that our little expedition might not 
want the dignity of danger, we were favoured with a 
distant glimpse of what was said to be an American 
cruiser, and had opportunity to consider what a pretty 
figure we should have made had the voyage ended in 


THE PIRATE. 


xxiii 


our being carried captive to the United States. After 
visiting the romantic shores of Morven, and the vicin- 
ity of Oban, we made a run to the coast of Ireland, 
and visited the Giant^s Causeway, that we might com- 
pare it with Staffa, which we had surveyed in our 
course, .^t length, about the middle of September, 
we ended our voyage in the Clyde, at the port of 
Greenock. 

And thus terminated our pleasant tour, to which our 
equipment gave unusual facilities, as the ship’s com- 
pany could form a strong boat’s crew, independent of 
those who might be left on board the vessel, which per- 
mitted us the freedom to land wherever our curiosity 
carried us. Let me add, wLile reviewing for a moment 
a sunny portion of my life, that among the six or seven 
friends who performed this voyage together, some of 
them doubtless of different tastes and pursuits, and 
remaining for several weeks on board a small vessel, 
there never occurred the slightest dispute or disagree- 
ment, each seeming anxious to submit his own particu- 
lar wishes to those of his friends. By this mutual 
accommodation all the purposes of our little expedition 
were obtained, while for a time we might have adopted 
the lines of Allan Cunningham’s fine sea-song, 

** The world of waters was our home, 

And merry men were we ! ** 

But sorrow mixes her memorials with the purest re- 
membrances of pleasure. On returning from the voyage 
which had proved so satisfactory, I found that fate had 
deprived her country most unexpectedly of a lady, 
qualified to adorn the high rank which she held, and 
who had long admitted me to a share of her friendship. 
The subsequent loss of one of those comrades who made 
up the party, and he the most intimate friend I had in 
th«» vorld, casts also its shade on recollections which. 


XXIV 


INTRODUCTION TO 


but for these embitterments, would be otherwise so 
pleasing. 

I may here briefly observe, that my business in this 
voyage, so far as I could be said to have any, was to 
endeavour to discover some localities which might be 
useful in the ^‘Lord of the Isles,’’ a poem with which I 
was then threatening the public, and was afterwards 
printed without attaining remarkable success. But as 
at the same time the anonymous novel of “ Waverley ” 
was making its way to popularity, I already augured the 
possibility of a second effort in this department of lit- 
erature, and I saw much in the wild islands of the 
Orkneys and Zetland, which I judged might be made 
in the highest degree interesting, should these isles 
ever become the scene of a narrative of fictitious events. 
I learned the history of Gow the pirate from an old 
sibyl, (the subject of a note, p. 326 of this volume,) 
whose principal subsistence was by a trade in favour- 
able winds, which she sold to mariners at Stromness. 
Nothing could be more interesting than the kindness 
and hospitality of the gentlemen of Zetland, which 
was to me the more affecting, as several of them had 
been friends and correspondents of my father. 

I was induced to go a generation or two farther back, 
to find materials from which I might trace the features 
of the old Norwegian Udaller, the Scottish gentry hav- 
ing in general occupied the place of that primitive race, 
and their language and peculiarities of manner having 
entirely disappeared. The only difference now to be 
observed betwixt the gentry of these islands, and those 
of Scotland in general, is, that the wealth and property 
is more equally divided among our more northern coun- 
trymen, and that there exists among the resident pro- 
prietors no men of very great wealth, whose display of 
its luxuries might render the others discontented with 
their own lot. From the same cause of general equal- 


THE PIRATE. 


XXV 


ity of fortunes, and tlie cheapness of living, which is 
its natural consequence, I found the officers of a veteran 
regiment who had maintained the garrison at Port Char- 
lotte, in Lerwick, discomposed at the idea of being 
recalled from a country where their pay, however in- 
adequate to the expenses of a capital, was fully ade- 
quate to their wants, and it was singular to hear natives 
of merry England herself regretting their approaching 
departure from the melancholy isles of the Ultima 
Thule. 

Such are the trivial particulars attending the origin 
of that publication, which took place several years later 
than the agreeable journey from which it took its 
rise. 

The state of manners which I have introduced in the 
romance, was necessarily in a great degree imaginary, 
though founded in some measure on slight hints, which, 
showing what was, seemed to give reasonable indication 
of what must once have been, the tone of the society 
in these sequestered but interesting islands. 

In one respect I was judged somewhat hastily, per- 
haps, when the character of Norna was pronounced by 
the critics a mere copy of Meg Merrilees. That I had 
fallen short of what 1 wished and desired to express 
is unquestionable, otherwise my object could not have 
been so widely mistaken; nor can I yet think that any 
person who will take the trouble of reading the Pirate 
with some attention, can fail to trace in Norna, — the 
victim of remorse and insanity, and the dupe of her 
own imposture, her mind, too, flooded with all the 
wild literature and extravagant superstitions of the 
north, — something distinct from the Dumfries-shire 
gipsy, whose pretensions to supernatural powers are not 
beyond those of a Norwood prophetess. The founda- 
tions of such a character may be perhaps traced, though 
'.t be too true that the necessary superstructure cannot 


XXVI 


INTRODUCTION. 


have been raised upon them, otherwise these remarks 
would have been unnecessary. There is also great im- 
probability in the statement of Norna^s possessing power 
and opportunity to impress on others that belief in her 
supernatural gifts which distracted her own mind. Yet, 
amid a very credulous and ignorant population, it is 
astonishing what success may be attained by an im- 
postor, who is, at the same time, an enthusiast. It is 
such as to remind us of the couplet which assures us 
that 

“ The pleasure is as great 
In being cheated as to cheat.’* 

Indeed, as I have observed elsewhere, the professed 
explanation of a tale, where appearances or incidents of 
a supernatural character are referred to natural causes, 
has often, in the winding up of the story, a degree of 
improbability almost equal to an absolute goblin narra- 
tive. Even the genius of Mrs. Eadcliffe could not 
always surmount this difficulty. 

Abbotsford, 

1st May, 1831. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


The purpose of the following Narrative is to give a de- 
tailed and accurate account of certain remarkable inci- 
dents which took place in the Orkney Islands, concerning 
which the more imperfect traditions and mutilated re- 
cords of the country only tell us the following erroneous 
particulars : — 

In the month of January, 1724-5, a vessel, called 
the Revenge, hearing twenty large guns, and six smaller, 
commanded by John Gow, or Goffe, or Smith, came 
to the Orkney Islands, and was discovered to be a 
pirate, by various acts of insolence and villainy com- 
mitted by the crew. These were for some time sub- 
mitted to, the inhabitants of these remote islands not 
possessing arms nor means of resistance ; and so bold 
was the Captain of these banditti, that he not only 
came ashore, and gave dancing parties in the village of 
Stromness, but before his real character was discovered, 
engaged the affections, and received the troth-plight, 
of a young lady possessed of some property. A pa- 
triotic individual, James Fea, younger of Clestron, 
formed the plan of securing the buccanier, which he 
effected by a mixture of courage and address, in conse- 
quence chiefly of Gow’s vessel having gone on shore 
near the harbour of Calfsound, on the Island of Eda, 
not far distant from a house then inhabited by Mr. 
Fea. In the various stratagems by which Mr. Fea 
contrived finally, at the peril of his life, (they being 
well armed and desperate,) to make the whole pirates 


xxviii 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


his prisoners, he was much aided by Mr. James Laing, 
the grandfather of the late Malcolm Laing, Esq., the 
acute and ingenious historian of Scotland during the 
17th century. 

Gow, and others of his crew, suffered, by sentence of 
the High Court of Admiralty, the punishment their 
crimes had long deserved. He conducted himself with 
great audacity when before the Court.; and, from an ac- 
count of the matter by an eye-witness, seems to have 
been subjected to some unusual severities, in order to 
compel him to plead. The words are these: ^^John 
G ow would not plead, for which he was brought to the 
bar, and the Judge ordered that his thumbs should be 
squeezed by two men, with a whip-cord, till it did 
break; and then it should be doubled, till it did again 
break, and then laid threefold, and that the execution- 
ers should pull with their whole strength ; which sen- 
tence Gow endured with a great deal of boldness. 
The next morning, (27th May, 1725,) when he had seen 
the terrible preparations for pressing him to death, his 
courage gave way, and he told the Marshal of Court, 
that he would not have given so much trouble, had he 
been assured of not being hanged in chains. He was 
then tried, condemned, and executed, with others of 
his crew. 

It is said, that the lady whose affections Gow had en- 
gaged, went up to London to see him before his death, 
and that, arriving too late, she had the courage to re- 
quest a sight of his dead body ; and then, touching the 
hand of the corpse, she formally resumed the troth- 
plight which she had bestowed. W^ithout going through 
this ceremony, she could not, according to the supersti- 
tion of the country, have escaped a visit from the ghost 
of her departed lover, in the event of her bestowing 
upon any living suitor the faith which she had plighted 
to the dead. This part of the legend may serve as a 


ADVERTISEMENT. xxix 

curious commentary on the fine Scottish ballad, which 
begins, 

** There came a ghost to Margaret’s door/’ &c. (a) ^ 

The common account of this incident farther hears, 
that Mr. Fea, the spirited individual by whose exer- 
tions Gow’s career of iniquity was cut short, was so 
far from receiving any reward from Government, that 
he could not obtain even countenance enough to protect 
him against a variety of sham suits, raised against him 
by Newgate solicitors, who acted in the name of Gow, 
and others of the pirate crew ; and the various expenses, 
vexatious prosecutions, and other legal consequences, 
in which his gallant exploit involved him, utterly 
ruined his fortune, and his family; making his memory 
a notable example to all who shall in future take pirates 
on their own authority. 

It is to be supposed, for the honour of George the 
First’s Government, that the last circumstance, as well 
as the dates, and other particulars of the commonly 
received story, are inaccurate, since they will be found 
totally irreconcilable with the following veracious nar- 
rative, compiled from materials to which he himself 
alone has had access, by 

The Author op Waverlet. 

1 See Editor's Notes at the end of the Volume. Wherever a 
similar reference occurs, the reader will understand that the same 
direction applies. 



THE PIRATE 


CHAPTER 1. 

The storm had ceased its wintry roar, 

Hoarse dash the billows of the sea ; 

But who on Thule’s desert shore, 

Cries, Have I burnt my harp for thee? 

Macniel. 

That long, narrow, and irregular island, usually 
called the mainland of Zetland, because it is by far 
the largest of that Archipelago, terminates, as is well 
known to the mariners who navigate the stormy 
seas which surround the Thule of the ancients, 
in a cliff of immense height, entitled Sumburgh- 
Head, which presents its bare scalp and naked 
sides to the weight of a tremendous surge, form- 
ing the extreme point of the isle to the south-east. 
This lofty promontory is constantly exposed to the 
current of a strong and furious tide, which, setting 
in betwixt the Orkney and Zetland Islands, and 
running with force only inferior to that of the 
Pentland Frith, takes its name from the headland 
we have mentioned, and is called the Eoost of 
Sumburgh ; roost being the phrase assigned in those 
isles to currents of this description. 

On the land side, the promontory is covered with 
short grass, and slopes steeply down to a little isth- 
mus, upon which the sea has encroached in creeks, 

YOL. I. — 1 


2 


THE PIRATE. 


which, advancing from either side of the island, 
gradually work their way forward, and seem as if 
in a short time they would form a junction, and 
altogether insulate Sumburgh-Head, when what is 
now a cape, will become a lonely mountain islet, 
severed from the mainland, of which it is at present 
the terminating extremity. 

Man, however, had in former days considered 
this as a remote or unlikely event; for a Norwe- 
gian chief of other times, or, as other accounts said, 
and as the name of Jarlshof seemed to imply, an 
ancient Earl of the Orkneys had selected this neck 
of land as the place for establishing a mansion-house. 
It has been long entirely deserted, and the vestiges 
only can be discerned with difficulty ; for the loose 
sand, borne on the tempestuous gales of those stormy 
regions, has overblown, and almost buried, the ruins 
of the buildings ; but in the end of the seventeenth 
century, a part of the Earl’s mansion was still en- 
tire and habitable. It was a rude building of rough 
stone, with nothing about it to gratify the eye, or 
to excite the imagination ; a large old-fashioned nar- 
row house, with a very steep roof, covered with flags 
composed of grey sandstone, would perhaps convey 
the best idea of the place to a modern reader. 
The windows were few, very small in size, and dis- 
tributed up and down the building with utter con- 
tempt of regularity. Against the main structure 
had rested, in former times, certain smaller co- 
partments of the mansion-house, containing offices, 
or subordinate apartments, necessary for the accom- 
modation of the Earl’s retainers and menials. But 
these had become ruinous ; and the rafters had 
been taken down for flre-wood, or for other pur- 
poses ; the walls had given way in many places ; 


THE PIRATE. 


3 


and, to complete the devastation, the sand had al- 
ready drifted amongst the ruins, and filled up what 
had been once the chambers they contained, to the 
depth of two or three feet. 

Amid this desolation, the inhabitants of Jarlshof 
had contrived, by constant labour and attention, to 
keep in order a few roods of land, which had been 
enclosed as a garden, and which, sheltered by the 
walls of the house itself, from the relentless sea- 
blast, produced such vegetables as the climate could 
bring forth, or rather as the sea-gale would permit 
to grow ; for these islands experience even less of 
the rigour of cold than is encountered on the 
mainland of Scotland ; but, unsheltered by a wall 
of some sort or other, it is scarce possible to raise 
even the most ordinary culinary vegetables ; and 
as for shrubs or trees, they are entirely out of 
the question, such is the force of the sweeping 
sea-blast. 

At a short distance from the mansion, and near 
to the sea-beach, just where the creek forms a sort 
of imperfect harbour, in which lay three or four 
fishing-boats, there were a few most wretched cot- 
tages for the inhabitants and tenants of the town- 
ship of Jarlshof, who held the whole district of the 
landlord upon such terms as were in those days 
usually granted to persons of this description, and 
which, of course, were hard enough. The landlord 
himself resided upon an estate which he possessed 
in a more eligible situation, in a different part of the 
island, and seldom visited his possessions at Sum- 
burgh-Head. He was an honest, plain Zetland gen- 
tleman, somewhat passionate, the necessary result 
of being surrounded by dependents ; and somewhat 
over-convivial in his habits, the consequence, per- 


4 


THE PIRATE. 


haps, of having too much time at his disposal ; but 
frank-tempered and generous to his people, and 
kind and hospitable to strangers. He was descended 
also of an old and noble Norwegian family ; a cir- 
cumstance which rendered him dearer to the lower 
orders, most of whom are of the same race ; while 
the lairds, or proprietors, are generally of Scottish 
extraction, who, at that early period, were still con- 
sidered as strangers and intruders. Magnus Troil, 
who deduced his descent from the very Earl who 
was supposed to have founded Jarlshof, was pecu- 
liarly of this opinion. 

The present inhabitants of Jarlshof had experi- 
enced, on several occasions, the kindness and good 
will of the proprietor of the territory. When Mr. 
Mertoun — such was the name of the present inha- 
bitant of the old mansion — first arrived in Zetland, 
some years before the story commences, he had been 
received at the house of Mr. Troil with that warm 
and cordial hospitality for which the islands are 
distinguished. No one asked him whence he came, 
where he was going, what was his purpose in visit- 
ing so remote a corner of the empire, or what was 
likely to be the term of his stay. He arrived a per- 
fect stranger, yet was instantly overpowered by a 
succession of invitations ; and in each house which 
he visited, he found a home as long as he chose to 
accept it, and lived as one of the family, unnoticed 
and unnoticing, until he thought proper to remove 
to some other dwelling. This apparent indiffer- 
ence to the rank, character, and qualities of their 
guest, did not arise from apathy on the part of his 
kind hosts, for the islanders had their full share 
of natural curiosity; but their delicacy deemed it 
would be &-n infringement upon the laws of hospi- 


THE PIRATE. 


5 


tality, to ask questions which their guest might 
have found it difficult or unpleasing to answer ; and 
instead of endeavouring, as is usual in other coun- 
tries, to wring out of Mr. Mertoun such communi- 
cations as he might find it agreeable to withhold, 
the considerate Zetlanders contented themselves 
with eagerly gathering up such scraps of infor- 
mation as could be collected in the course of 
conversation. 

But the rock in an Arabian desert is not more 
reluctant to afford water, than Mr. Basil Mertoun 
was niggard in imparting his confidence, even inci- 
dentally ; and certainly the politeness of the gentry 
of Thule was never put to a more severe test than 
when they felt that good-breeding enjoined them to 
abstain from enquiring into the situation of so mys- 
terious a personage. 

All that was actually known of him was easily 
summed up. Mr. Mertoun had come to Lerwick, 
then rising into some importance, but not yet ac- 
knowledged as the principal town of the island, in 
a Dutch vessel, accompanied only by his son, a hand- 
some boy of about fourteen years old. His own age 
might exceed forty. The Dutch skipper introduced 
him to some of the very good friends with whom 
he used to barter gin and gingerbread for little Zet- 
land bullocks, smoked geese, and stockings of lambs- 
wool ; and although Meinheer could only say, that 
“ Meinheer Mertoun hah bay his bassage like one 
gentlemans, and hah given a Kreitz-dollar beside 
to the crew,” this introduction served to establish 
the Dutchman’s passenger in a respectable circle of 
acquaintances, which gradually enlarged, as it ap- 
peared that the stranger was a man of considerable 
acquirements. 


6 


THE PIRATE. 


This discovery was made almost jper force; for 
Mertoun was as unwilling to speak upon general 
subjects, as upon his own affairs. But he was some- 
times led into discussions, which showed, as it were 
in spite of himself, the scholar and the man of the 
world ; and, at other times, as if in requital of the 
hospitality which he experienced, he seemed to com- 
pel himself, against his fixed nature, to enter into 
the society of those around him, especially when it 
assumed the grave, melancholy, or satirical cast, 
which best suited the temper of his own mind. 
Upon such occasions, the Zetlanders were univer- 
sally of opinion that he must have had an excellent 
education, neglected only in one striking particular, 

. namely, that Mr. Mertoun scarce knew the stem of 
a ship from the stern ; and in the management of a 
boat, a cow could not be more ignorant. It seemed 
astonishing such gross ignorance of the most neces- 
sary art of life (in the Zetland Isles at least) should 
subsist along with his accomplishments in other 
respects ; but so it was. 

Unless called forth in the manner we have men- 
tioned, the habits of Basil Mertoun were retired and 
gloomy. From loud mirth he instantly fled; and 
even the moderated cheerfulness of a friendly party, 
had the invariable effect of throwing him into 
deeper dejection than even his usual demeanour 
indicated. 

Women are always particularly desirous of inves- 
tigating mystery, and of alleviating melancholy, 
especially when these circumstances are united in a 
handsome man about the prime of life. It is possible, 
therefore, that amongst the fair-haired and blue- 
eyed daughters of Thule, this mysterious and pensive 
stranger might have found some one to take upon 


rHE PIRATE 


7 


herself the task of consolation, had ne shown any 
willingness to accept such kindly offices ; but, far 
from doing so, he seemed even to shun the presence 
of the sex, to which in our distresses, whether of 
mind or body, we generally apply for pity and 
comfort. 

To these peculiarities Mr. Mertoun added another, 
which was particularly disagreeable to his host and 
principal patron, Magnus Troil. This magnate of 
Zetland, descended by the father’s side, as we have 
already said, from an ancient Norwegian family, by 
the marriage of its representative with a Danish 
lady, held the devout opinion that a cup of Geneva 
or Nantz was specific against all cares and afflictions 
whatever. These were remedies to which Mr. Mer- 
toun never applied ; his drink was water, and water 
alone, and no persuasion or entreaties could induce 
him to taste any stronger beverage than was afforded 
by the pure spring. Now this Magnus Troil could 
not tolerate ; it was a defiance to the ancient northern 
laws of conviviality, which, for his own part, he had 
so rigidly observed, that although he was wont to 
assert that he had never in his life gone to bed 
drunk, (that is, in his own sense of the word,) it 
would have been impossible to prove that he had 
ever resigned himself to slumber in a state of actual 
and absolute sobriety. It may be therefore asked. 
What did this stranger bring into society to com- 
pensate the displeasure given by his austere and 
abstemious habits ? He had, in the first place, that 
manner and self-importance which mark a person 
of some consequence : and although it was conjec- 
tured that he could not be rich, yet it was certainly 
known by his expenditure that neither was he abso- 
lutely poor. He had, besides, some powers of con- 


8 


THE PIRATE. 


versation, when, as we have already hinted, he chose 
to exert them, and his misanthropy or aversion to 
the business and intercourse of ordinary life, was 
often expressed in an antithetical manner, which 
passed for wit, when better was not to be had. 
Above all, Mr. Mertoun’s secret seemed impene- 
trable, and his presence had all the interest of a 
riddle, which men love to read over and over, be- 
cause they cannot find out the meaning of it. 

Notwithstanding these recommendations, Mer- 
toun differed in so many material points from his 
host, that after he had been for some time a guest 
at his principal residence, Magnus Troil was agree- 
ably surprised when, one evening after they had sat 
two hours in absolute silence, drinking brandy and 
water, — that is, Magnus drinking the alcohol, and 
Mertoun the element, — the guest asked his host’s 
permission to occupy, as his tenant, this deserted 
mansion of Jarlshof, at the extremity of the territory 
called Dunrossness, and situated just beneath Sum- 
burgh-Head. “ I shall be handsomely rid of him,” 
quoth Magnus to himself, “ and his kill-joy visage 
will never again stop the bottle in its round. His 
departure will ruin me in lemons, however, for his 
mere look was quite sufficient to sour a whole ocean 
of punch.” 

Yet the kind-hearted Zetlander generously and 
disinterestedly remonstrated with Mr. Mertoun on 
the solitude and inconveniences to which he was 
about to subject himself. “ There were scarcely,” he 
said, “ even the most necessary articles of furniture 
in the old house — there was no society within many 
miles — for provisions, the principal article of food 
would be sour sillocks, and his only company gulls 
and gannets.” 


THE PIRATE. 


9 


** My good friend,” replied Mertoun, “ if you could 
have named a circumstance which would render the 
residence more eligible to me than any other, it is 
that there would be neither human luxury nor hu- 
man society near the place of my retreat; a shelter 
from the weather for my own head, and for the boy’s, 
is all I seek for. So name your rent, Mr. Troil, and 
let me be your tenant at Jarlshof.” 

“ Rent ? ” answered the Zetlander ; why, no great 
rent for an old house which no one has lived in 
since my mother’s time ^ God rest her ! — and as 
for shelter, the old walls are thick enough, and will 
hear many a bang yet. But, Heaven love you, Mr. 
Mertoun, think what you are purposing. For one 
of us to live at Jarlshof, were a wild scheme enough ; 
but you, who are from another country, whether 
English, Scotch, or Irish, no one can tell ” 

“Hor does it greatly matter,” said Mertoun, some- 
what abruptly. 

“ Not a herring’s scale,” answered the Laird ; “ only 
that I like you the better for being no Scot, as I 
trust you are not one. Hither they have come like 
the clack-geese — every chamberlain has brought 
over a flock of his own name, and his own hatching, 
for what I know, and here they roost for ever — 
catch them returning to their own barren Highlands 
or Lowlands, when once they have tasted our Zet- 
land beef, and seen our bonny voes and lochs. No, 
sir,” (here Magnus proceeded with great animation, 
sipping from time to time the half-diluted spirit, 
which at the same time animated his resentment 
against the intruders, and enabled him to endure the 
mortifying reflection which it suggested,) — “ No, sir, 
the ancient days and the genuine manners of these 
Islands are no more ; for our ancient possessors, — 


to 


THE PIRATE. 


our Patersons, our Feas, our Schlagbrenners, oui 
Thorbiorns, have given place to Giffords, Scotts, 
Mouats, men whose names bespeak them or their an- 
cestors strangers to the soil which we the Troils 
have inhabited long before the days of Turf-Einar, 
who first taught these Isles the mystery of burning 
peat for fuel, and who has been handed down to a 
grateful posterity by a name which records the 
discovery.” 

This was a subject upon which the potentate of 
Jarlshof was usually very diffuse, and Mertoun saw 
him enter upon it with pleasure, because he knew 
he should not be called upon to contribute any aid 
to the conversation, and might therefore indulge his 
own saturnine humour while the Norwegian Zet- 
laiider declaimed on the change of times and inha- 
bitants. But just as Magnus had arrived at the 
melancholy conclusion, “ how probable it was, that in 
another century scarce a merk — scarce even an ure 
of land, would be in the possession of the Norse in- 
habitants, the true Udallers ^ of Zetland,” he recol- 
lected the circumstances of his guest, and stopped 
suddenly short. “ 1 do not say all this,” he added, 
interrupting himself, “as if I were unwilling that 
you should settle on my estate, Mr. Mertoun — But 
for Jarlshof — the place is a wild one — Come from 
where you will, I warrant you will say, like other 
travellers, you came from a better climate than ours, 
for so say you all. And yet you think of a retreat, 
which the very natives run away from. Will you 
not take your glass ? ” — (This was to be considered 
as interjectional,) — “ then here’s to you.” 

^ The Udallers are the allodial possessors of Zetland, who hold 
their possessions under the old Norwegian law, instead of the feudal 
tenures introduced among them from Scotland. 


THE PIRATE. 


1 


“My good sir,” answered Mertoun, “I am in- 
different to climate ; if there is but air enough to 
fill my lungs, I care not if it be the breath of Arabia 
or of Lapland.” 

“ Air enough you may have,” answered Magnus, 
“ no lack of that — somewhat damp, strangers allege 
it to be, but w,e know a corrective for that — Here’s 
to you, Mr. Mertoun — You must learn to do so, and 
to smoke a pipe ; and then, as you say, you will find 
the air of Zetland equal to that of Arabia. But have 
you seen Jarlshof ?” 

The stranger intimated that he had not. 

“Then,” replied Magnus, “you have no idea of 
your undertaking. If you think it a comfortable 
roadstead like this, with the house situated on the 
side of an inland voe,^ that brings the herrings up to 
your door, you are mistaken, my heart. At Jarlshof 
you will see nought but the wild waves tumbling on 
the bare rocks, and the Roost of Sumburgh running 
at the rate of fifteen knots an-hour.” 

“ I shall see nothing at least of the current of 
human passions,” replied Mertoun. 

“ You will hear nothing but the clanging and 
screaming of scarts, sheer-waters, and seagulls, from 
daybreak till sunset.” 

“ I will compound, my friend,” replied the stranger, 
“ so that I do not hear the chattering of women’s 
tongues.” 

“Ah,” said the Norman, “ that is because you hear 
just now my little Minna and Brenda singing in the 
garden with your Mordaunt. Now, I would rather 
listen to their little voices, than the skylark which 
T. once heard in Caithness, or the nightingale that I 


1 Salt-water lake. 


12 


THE PRIATE. 


have read of. — What will the girls do for want of 
their playmate Mordaunt ? ” 

“ They will shift for themselves,” answered Mer- 
toun ; “ younger or elder they will find playmates or 
dupes. — But the question is, Mr. Troil, will you 
let to me, as your tenant, this old mansion of 
Jarlshof?” 

“ Gladly, since you make it your option to live in 
a spot so desolate.” • 

“ And as for the rent ? ” continued Mertoun. 

“ The rent ? ” replied Magnus ; “ hum — why, you 
must have the bit of jplantie cruive} which they 
once called a garden, and a right in the scathold, and 
a sixpenny merk of land, that the tenants may fish 
for you ; — eight lispunds ^ of butter, and eight 
shillings sterling yearly, is not too much ? ” 

Mr. Mertoun agreed to terms so moderate, and 
from thenceforward resided chiefly at the solitary 
mansion which we have described in the beginning 
of this chapter, conforming not only without com- 
plaint, but, as it seemed, with a sullen pleasure, to 
all the privations which so wild and desolate a sit- 
uation necessarily imposed on its inhabitant. 

1 Patch of ground for vegetables. The liberal custom of the 
country permits any person, who has occasion for such a conve- 
nience, to select out of the unenclosed moorland a small patch, 
which he surrounds with a drystone wall, and cultivates as a kail- 
yard, till he exhausts the soil with cropping, and then he deserts 
it, and encloses another. This liberty is so far from inferring an 
invasion of the right of proprietor and tenant, that the last degree 
of contempt is inferred of an avaricious man, when a Zetlander 
says he would not hold a plantie cruive of him. 

2 A lispund is about thirty pounds English, and the value is 
averaged by Dr. Edmonston at ten shillings sterling. 


CHAPTEE II 


*Tis not alone the scene — the man, Anselmo, 

The man finds sympathies in these wild wastes, 

And roughly tumbling seas, which fairer views 
And smoother waves deny him. 

Ancient Arama, 


The few inhabitants of the township of Jarlshof 
had at first heard with alarm, that a person of rank 
superior to their own was come to reside in the ruin- 
ous tenement, which they still called the Castle. 
In those days (for the present times are greatly al- 
tered for the better) the presence of a superior, in 
such a situation, was almost certain to be attended 
with additional burdens and exactions, for which, 
under one pretext or another, feudal customs fur- 
nished a thousand apologies. By each of these, a 
part of the tenants’ hard-won and precarious profits 
was diverted for the use of their powerful neighbour 
and superior, the tacksman, as he was called. But 
the sub-tenants speedily found that no oppression 
of this kind was to be apprehended at the hands of 
Basil Mertoun. His own means, whether large or 
small, were at least fully adequate to his expenses, 
which, so far as regarded his habits of life, were of 
the most frugal description. The luxuries of a few 
books, and some philosophical instruments, with 
which he was supplied from London as occasion 
offered, seemed to indicate a degree of wealth un- 
usual in those islands ; but, on the other hand, the 
table and the accommodations at Jarlshof, did not 


THE PIRATE. 


H 

exceed what was maintained by a Zetland proprietor 
of the most inferior description. 

The tenants of the hamlet troubled themselves 
very little about the quality of their superior, as 
soon as they found that their situation was rather 
to be mended than rendered worse by his presence ; 
and, once relieved from the apprehension of his ty- 
rannizing over them, they laid their heads together 
to make the most of him by various petty tricks of 
overcharge and extortion, which for a while the 
stranger submitted to with the most philosophic 
indifference. An incident, however, occurred, which 
put his character in a new light, and effectually 
checked all future efforts at extravagant imposition. 

A dispute arose in the kitchen of the Castle be- 
twixt an old governante, who acted as housekeeper 
to Mr. Mertoun, and Sweyn Erickson, as good a 
Zetlander as ever rowed a boat to the fishing ; ^ 
which dispute, as is usual in such cases, was main- 
tained with such increasing heat and vociferation as 
to reach the ears of the inaster, (as he was called,) 
who, secluded in a solitary turret, was deeply em- 
ployed in examining the contents of a new package 
of books from London, which, after long expectation, 
had found its way to Hull, from thence by a 
whaling vessel to Lerwick, and so to Jarlshof. With 
more than the usual thrill of indignation which in- 
dolent people always feel when roused into action 
on some unpleasant occasion, Mertoun descended 
to the scene of contest, and so suddenly, perempto- 
rily, and strictly, enquired into the cause of dispute, 
that the parties, notwithstanding every evasion 
which they attempted, became unable to disguise 

1 i. e. The deep-sea fishing, in distinction to that which is 
practised along shore. 


THE PIRATE. 


15 


from him, that their difference respected the several 
interests to which the honest governante, and no 
less honest fisherman, were respectively entitled, in 
an overcharge of about one hundred per cent on a 
bargain of rock -cod, purchased by the former from 
the latter, for the use of the family at Jarlshof. 

When this was fairly ascertained and confessed, 
Mr. Mertoun stood looking upon the culprits with 
eyes in which the utmost scorn seemed to contend 
with awakening passion. “ Hark you, ye old hag,” 
said he at length to the housekeeper, “ avoid my 
house this instant ! and know that I dismiss you, 
not for being a liar, a thief, and an ungrateful quean, 
— for these are qualities as proper to you as your 
name of woman, — but for daring, in my house, to 
scold above your breath. — And for you, you rascal, 
who suppose you may cheat a stranger as you would 
flinch^ a whale, know that I am well acquainted 
with the rights which, by delegation from your 
master, Magnus Troil, I can exercise over you, if I 
will. Provoke me to a certain pitch, and you shall 
learn, to your cost, I can break your rest as easily as 
you can interrupt my leisure. I know the meaning of 
scat, and wattle, and hawlchen, and hagalef, (6) and 
every other exaction, by which your lords, in an- 
cient and modern days, have wrung your withers ; 
nor is there one of you that shall not rue the day 
that you could not be content with robbing me of 
my money, but must also break in on my leisure 
with your atrocious northern clamour, that rivals in 
discord the screaming of a flight of Arctic gulls.” 

Nothing better occurred to Sweyn, in answer to 
this objurgation, than the preferring a humble re- 

1 Tlie operation of slicing the blubber from the bones of the 
ivhale, is called, technically, j^mcA/n^. 


i6 


THE PIRATE. 


quest that his honour would be pleased to keep the 
cod-fish without payment, and say no more about the 
matter ; but by this time Mr. Mertoun had worked 
up his passions into an ungovernable rage, and with 
one hand he threw the money at the fisherman’s 
head, while with the other he pelted him out of the 
apartment with his own fish, which he finally flung 
out of doors after him. 

There was so much of appalling and tyrannic fury 
in the stranger’s manner on this occasion, that Sweyn 
neither stopped to collect the money nor take back 
his commodity, but fled at a precipitate rate to the 
small hamlet, to tell his comrades that if they pro- 
voked Master Mertoun any farther, he would turn 
an absolute Pate Stewart ^ on their hand, and head 
and hang without either judgment or mercy. 

Hither also came the discarded housekeeper, to 
consult with her neighbours and kindred (for she 
too was a native of the village) what she should do 
to regain the desirable situation from which she had 
been so suddenly expelled. The old Ranzellaar of 
the village, who had the voice most potential in the 
deliberations of the township, after hearing what 
had happened, pronounced that Sweyn Erickson 
had gone too far in raising the market upon Mr. 
Mertoun; and that whatever pretext the tacksman 
might assume for thus giving way to his anger, the 
real grievance must have been the charging the 
rock cod-fish at a penny instead of a half-penny 
a-pound ; he therefore exhorted all the community 
never to raise their exactions in future beyond the 

1 Meaning, probably, Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, exe- 
cuted for tyranny and oppression practised on the inhabitants 
of those remote islands, in the beginning of the seventeenth 
century. 


THE PIRATE. 


17 


proptrrtion of threepence upon the shilling, at which 
rate their master at the Castle could not reasonably 
be expected to grumble, since, as he was disposed to 
do them no harm, it was reasonable to think that, 
in a moderate way, he had no objection to do them 
good. ‘‘And three upon twelve,” said the experi- 
enced Ranzellaar, “ is a decent and moderate profit, 
and will bring with it God’s blessing and Saint 
Konald’s.” 

Proceeding upon the tariff thus judiciously recom- 
mended to them, the inhahitants of Jarlshof cheated 
Mertoun in future only to the moderate extent of 
twenty-five per cent; a rate to which all nabobs, 
army-contractors, speculators in the funds, and 
others, whom recent and rapid success has enabled 
to settle in the country upon a great scale, ought to 
submit, as very reasonable treatment at the hand of 
their rustic neighbours. Mertoun at least seemed of 
that opinion, for he gave himself no farther trouble 
upon the subject of his household expenses. 

The conscript fathers of Jarlshof, having settled 
their own matters, took next under their considera- 
tion the case of Swertha, the banished matron who 
had been expelled from the Castle, whom, as an ex- 
perienced and useful ally, they were highly desirous 
to restore to her office of housekeeper, should that 
be found possible. But as their wisdom here failed 
them, Swertha, in despair, had recourse to the good 
offices of Mordaunt Mertoun, with whom she had 
acquired some favour by her knowledge in old Nor- 
wegian ballads, and dismal tales concerning the 
Trows or Drows, (the dwarfs of the Scalds,) with 
whom superstitious eld had peopled many a lonely 
cavern and brown dale in Dunrossness, as in every 
other district of Zetland. “Swertha,” said the 

VOL. I. — 2 


i8 


THE PIRATE. 


youth, “ I can do but little for you, but you may 
do something for yourself. My father’s passion re- 
sembles the fury of those ancient champions, those 
Berserkars, you sing songs about.” 

“ Ay, ay, fish of my heart,” replied the old woman, 
with a pathetic whine ; “ the Berserkars (c) were 
champions who lived before the blessed days of 
Saint Olave, and who used to run like madmen on 
swords, and spears, and harpoons, and muskets, and 
snap them all into pieces, as a finner ^ would go 
through a herring-net, and then, when the fury went 
off, they were as weak and unstable as water.” ^ 

“ That’s the very thing, Swertha,” said Mordaunt. 
“ Now, my father never likes to think of his passion 
after it is over, and is so much of a Berserkar, that, 
let him be desperate as he will to-day, he will not 
care about it to-morrow. Therefore, he has not filled 
up your place in the household at the Castle, and 
not a mouthful of warm food has been dressed there 
since you went away, and not a morsel of bread baked, 
but we have lived just upon whatever cold thing came 
to hand. Now, Swertha, I will be your warrant, that 
if you go boldly up to the Castle, and enter upon the 
discharge of your duties as usual, you will never hear 
a single word from him.” 

Swertha hesitated at first to obey this bold coun- 
sel. She said, “to her thinking, Mr. Mertoun, when 
he was angry, looked more like a fiend than any 
Berserkar of them all ; that the fire flashed from 

1 Finner, small whale. 

2 The sagas of the Scalds are full of descriptions of these cham- 
pions, and do not permit us to doubt that the Berserkars, so called 
from fighting without armour, used some physical means of working 
themselves into a frenzy, during which they possessed the strength 
and energy of madness. The Indian warriors are well known to do 
the same by dint of opium and bang. 


THE PIRATE. 


19 


his eyes, and the foam flew from his lips ; and that 
it would he a plain tempting of Providence to put 
herself again in such a venture.” 

But, on the encouragement which she received 
from the son, she determined at length once more 
to face the parent ; and, dressing herself in her or- 
dinary household attire, for so Mordaunt particu- 
larly recommended, she slipped into the Castle, and 
presently resuming the various and numerous occu- 
pations which devolved on her, seemed as deeply en- 
gaged in household cares as if she had never been 
out of office. 

The first day of her return to her duty, Swertha 
made no appearance in presence of her master, but 
trusted that after his three days’ diet on cold meat, 
a hot dish, dressed with the best of her simple skill, 
might introduce her favourably to his recollection. 
When Mordaunt had reported that his father had 
taken no notice of this change of diet, and when she 
herself observed that in passing and repassing him 
occasionally, her appearance produced no effect upon 
her singular master, she began to imagine that the 
whole affair had escaped Mr. Mertoun’s memory, and 
was active in her duty as usual. Neither was she 
convinced of the contrary until one day, when, hap- 
pening somewhat to elevate her tone in a dispute 
with the other maid-servant, her master, who at 
that time passed the place of contest, eyed her with 
a strong glance, and pronounced the single word, 
Eemember ! in a tone which taught Swertha the gov- 
ernment of her tongue for many weeks after. 

If Mertoun was whimsical in his mode of govern- 
ing his household, he seemed no less so in his plan 
of educating his son. He showed the youth but few 
symptoms of parental affection ; yet, in his ordinary 


20 


THE PIRATE. 


state of mind, the improvement of Mordaunt’s edu- 
cation seemed to be the utmost object of his life. 
He had both books and information sufficient to 
discharge the task of tutor in the ordinary branches 
of knowledge; and in this capacity was regular, 
calm, and strict, not to say severe, in exacting from 
his pupil the attention necessary for his profiting. 
But in the perusal of history, to which their atten- 
tion was frequently turned, as well as in the study 
of classic authors, there often occurred facts or 
sentiments which produced an instant effect upon 
Mertoun’s mind, and brought on him suddenly what 
Swertha, Sweyn, and even Mordaunt, came to dis- 
tinguish by the name of his dark hour. He was 
aware, in the usual case, of its approach, and re- 
treated to an inner apartment, into which he never 
permitted even Mordaunt to enter. Here he would 
abide in seclusion for days, and even weeks, only 
coming out at uncertain times, to take such food as 
they had taken care to leave within his reach, which 
he used in wonderfully small quantities. At other 
times, and especially during the winter solstice, 
when almost every person spends the gloomy time 
within doors in feasting and merriment, this un- 
happy man would wrap himself in a dark-coloured 
sea-cloak, and wander out along the stormy beach, 
or upon the desolate heath, indulging his own 
gloomy and wayward reveries under the inclement 
sky, the rather that he was then most sure to 
wander unencountered and unobserved. 

As Mordaunt grew older, he learned to note the 
particular signs which preceded these fits of gloomy 
despondency, and to direct such precautions as might 
ensure his unfortunate parent from ill-timed inter- 
ruption, (which had always the effect of driving him 


THE PIRATE. 


21 


to fury,) while, at the same time, full provision was 
made for his subsistence. Mordaunt perceived that 
at such periods the melancholy fit of his father was 
greatly prolonged, if he chanced to present himself 
to his eyes while the dark hour was upon him. Out 
of respect, therefore, to his parent, as well as to in- 
dulge the love of active exercise and of amusement 
natural to his period of life, Mordaunt used often 
to absent himself altogether from the mansion of 
Jarlshof, and even from the district, secure that his 
father, if the dark hour passed away in his absence, 
would be little inclined to enquire how his son had 
disposed of his leisure, so that he was sure he had 
not watched his own weak moments ; that being the 
subject on which he entertained the utmost jealousy. 

At such times, therefore, all the sources of amuse- 
ment which the country afforded, were open to the 
younger Mertoun, who, in these intervals of his 
education, had an opportunity to give full scope to 
the energies of a bold, active, and daring character. 
He was often engaged with the youth of the hamlet 
in those desperate sports, to which the “dreadful 
trade of the samphire-gatherer ” is like a walk upon 
level ground — often joined those midnight excur- 
sions upon the face of the giddy cliffs, to secure the 
eggs or the young of the sea- fowl ° and in these 
daring adventures displayed an address, presence 
of mind, and activity, which, in one so young, and 
not a native of the country, astonished the oldest 
fowlers. ^ 

1 Fatal accidents, however, sometimes occur. When I visited 
the Fair Isle in 1814, a poor lad of fourteen had been killed by 
a fall from the rocks about a fortnight before our arrival. The 
accident happened almost within sight of his mother, who was 
casting peats at no great distance. The body fell into the sea, 
and was seen no more. But the islanders account this an hon 


22 


THE PIRATE. 


At other times, Mordaunt accompanied Sweyn 
and other fishermen in their long and perilous ex- 
peditions to the distant and deep sea, learning 
under their direction the management of the boat, 
in which they equal, or exceed, perhaps, any natives 
of the British empire. This exercise had charms 
for Mordaunt, independently of the fishing alone. 

At this time, the old Norwegian sagas were much 
remembered, and often rehearsed, by the fishermen, 
who still preserved among themselves the ancient 
Norse tongue, which was the speech of their fore- 
fathers. In the dark romance of those Scandina- 
vian tales, lay much that was captivating to a 
youthful ear ; and the classic fables of antiquity 
were rivalled at least, if not excelled, in Mord aunt’s 
opinion, by the strange legends of Berserk ars, of 
Sea-kings, of dwarfs, giants, and sorcerers, which 
he heard from the native Zetlanders. Often the 
scenes around him were assigned as the localities of 
the wild poems, which, half recited, half chanted by 
voices as hoarse, if not so loud, as the waves over 
which they floated, pointed out the very bay on 
which they sailed as the scene of a bloody sea-fight 
the scarce-seen heap of stones that bristled over the 
projecting cape, as the dun, or castle, of some potent 
earl or noted pirate ; the distant and solitary grey 
stone on the lonely moor, as marking the grave of 
a hero ; the wild cavern, up which the sea rolled in 
heavy, broad, and unbroken billows, as the dwelling 
of some noted sorceress. ^ 

The ocean also had its mysteries, the effect of 
which was aided by the dim twilight, through 

curable mode of death ; and as the children begin the practice of 
climbing very early, fewer accidents occur than might be expected. 

1 Note I. — Norse Fragments. 


THE PIRATE. 


23 


which it was imperfectly seen for more than half 
the year. Its bottomless depths and secret caves 
contained, according to the account of Sweyn and 
others, skilled in legendary lore, such wonders as 
modern navigators reject with disdain. In the 
quiet moonlight bay, where the waves came rip- 
pling to the shore, upon a bed of smooth sand in- 
termingled with shells, the mermaid was still seen 
to glide along the waters, and, mingling her voice 
with the sighing breeze, was often heard to sing of 
subterranean wonders, or to chant prophecies of 
future events. The kraken, that hugest of living 
things, was still supposed to cumber the recesses 
of the Northern Ocean ; and often, when some fog- 
bank covered the sea at a distance, the eye of the 
experienced boatman saw the horns of the mon- 
strous leviathan welking and waving amidst the 
wreaths of mist, and bore away with all press of 
oar and sail, lest the sudden suction, occasioned 
by the sinking of the monstrous mass to the bot- 
tom, should drag within the grasp of its multifari- 
ous feelers his own frail skiff. The sea-snake was 
also known, which, arising out of the depths of 
ocean, stretches to the skies his enormous neck, 
covered with a mane like that of a war-horse, and 
with its broad glittering eyes, raised mast-head 
high, looks out, as it seems, for plunder or for 
victims. 

Many prodigious stories of these marine mon- 
sters, and of many others less known, were then 
universally received among the Zetlanders, whose 
descendants have not as yet by any means aban- 
doned faith in them.^ 

Such legends are, indeed, everywhere current 

1 Note II. — Monsters of the Northern Seas. 


24 


THE PIRATE. 


amongst the vulgar ; but the imagination is far 
more powerfully affected by them on the deep and 
dangerous seas of the north, amidst precipices and 
headlands, many hundred feet in height, — amid 
perilous straits, and currents, and eddies, — long 
sunken reefs of rock, over which the vivid ocean 
foams and boils, — dark caverns, to whose extrem- 
ities neither man nor skiff has ever ventured, 
— lonely, and often uninhabited isles, — and occa- 
sionally the ruins of ancient northern fastnesses, 
dimly seen by the feeble light of the Arctic win- 
ter. To Mordaunt, who had much of romance in 
his disposition, these superstitions formed a pleas- 
ing and interesting exercise of the imagination, 
while, half doubting, half inclined to believe, he 
listened to the tales chanted concerning these won- 
ders of nature, and creatures of credulous belief, 
told in the rude hut energetic language of the an- 
cient Scalds. 

But there wanted not softer and lighter amuse- 
ment, that might seem better suited to Mordaunt’ s 
age, than the wild tales and rude exercises which 
we have already mentioned. The season of win- 
ter, when, from the shortness of the daylight, la- 
bour becomes impossible, is in Zetland the time of 
revel, feasting, and merriment. Whatever the fish- 
erman has been able to acquire during summer, 
was expended, and often wasted, in maintaining 
the mirth and hospitality of his hearth during 
this period ; while the landholders and gentlemen 
of the island gave double loose to their convivial 
and hospitable dispositions, thronged their houses 
with guests, and drove away the rigour of the season 
with jest, glee, and song, the dance, and the wine-cup. 

Amid the revels of this merry, though rigorous 


THE PIRATE. 


25 


season, no youth added more spirit to the dance, 
or glee to the revel, than the young stranger, Mor- 
daunt Mertoun. When his father’s state of mind 
permitted, or indeed required, his absence, he wan- 
dered from house to house a welcome guest where- 
ever he came, and lent his willing voice to the song, 
and his foot to the dance. A boat, or, if the weather, 
as was often the case, permitted not ‘that conve- 
nience, one of the numerous ponies, which, straying 
in hordes about the extensive moors, may be said 
to be at any man’s command who can catch them, 
conveyed him from the mansion of one hospitable 
Zetlander to that of another. None excelled him 
in performing the warlike sword-dance, a species 
of amusement which had been derived from the 
habits of the ancient Norsemen. He could play 
upon the gue, and upon the common violin, the 
melancholy and pathetic tunes peculiar to the coun- 
try ; and with great spirit and execution could 
relieve their monotony with the livelier airs of 
the North of Scotland When a party set forth 
as maskers, or, as they are called in Scotland, guiz- 
ards, to visit some neighbouring Laird, or rich 
Udaller, it augured well of the expedition if Mor- 
daunt Mertoun could be prevailed upon to under- 
take the office of skudler, or leader of the band. 
Upon these occasions, full of fun and frolic, he led 
his retinue from house to house, bringing mirth 
where he went, and leaving regret when he de- 
parted. Mordaunt became thus generally known, 
and beloved as generally, through most of the 
houses composing the patriarchal community of 
the Main Isle ; but his visits were most frequently 
and most willingly paid at the mansion of his 
father’s landlord and protector, Magnus Troil. 


26 


THE PIRATE. 


It was not entirely the hearty and sincere wel- 
come of the worthy old Magnate, nor the sense 
that he was in effect his father’s patron, which oc- 
casioned these frequent visits. The hand of wel- 
come was indeed received as eagerly as it was 
sincerely given, while the ancient Udaller, raising 
himself in his huge chair, whereof the inside was 
lined with -^ell-dressed sealskins, and the outside 
composed of massive oak, carved by the rude grav- 
ing-tool of some Hamburgh carpenter, shouted forth 
his welcome in a tone, which might, in ancient 
times, have hailed the return of loul, the highest 
festival of the Goths. There was metal yet more 
attractive, and younger hearts, whose welcome, if 
less loud, was as sincere as that of the jolly Udaller. 
But this is matter which ought not to be dis- 
cussed at the conclusion of a chapter. 


CHAPTEE III. 


** O, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, 

They were twa bonnie lasses ; ^ 

They biggit a house on you burn-brae, 

And theekit it ower wi’ rashes. 

Fair Bessy Bell I looed yestreen, 

And thought I ne’er could alter ; 

But Mary Gray’s twa pawky een 
Have garr’d my fancy falter.” (c?) 

Scots Song. 

We have already mentioned Minna and Brenda, 
the daughters of Magnus Troil. Their mother Jif^d 
been dead for many years, and they were now two 
beautiful girls, the eldest only eighteen, which 
might be a year or two younger than Mordaunt 
Mertoun, the second about seventeen. ■ — They were 
the joy of their father’s heart, and the light of his 
old eyes ; and although indulged to a degree which 
might have endangered his comfort and their own, 
they repaid his affection with a love, into which 
even blind indulgence had not introduced slight 
regard, or feminine caprice. The difference of their 
tempers and of their complexions was singularly 
striking, although combined, as is usual, with a 
certain degree of family resemblance. 

The mother of these maidens had been a Scot- 
tish lady from the Highlands of Sutherland, the 
orphan of a noble chief, who, driven from his own 
country during the feuds of the seventeenth century, 


28 


THE PIRATE. 


had found shelter in those peaceful islands, which, 
amidst poverty and seclusion, were thus far happy, 
that they remained unvexed by discord, and un- 
stained by civil broil. The father (his name was 
Saint Clair) pined for his native glen, his feudal 
tower, his clansmen, and his fallen authority, and 
died not long after his arrival in Zetland. The 
beauty of his orphan daughter, despite her Scottish 
lineage, melted . the stout heart of Magnus Troil. 
He sued and was listened to, and she became his 
bride ; but dying in the fifth year of their union, 
left him to mourn his brief period of domestic 
happiness. 

From her mother, Minna inherited the stately 
form and dark eyes, the raven locks and finely-pen- 
cilled brows, which showed she was, on one side at 
least, a stranger to the blood of Thule. Her cheek, — 

“ 0 call it fair, not pale ! ” 

was so slightly and delicately tinged with the rose, 
that many thought the lily had an undue proportion 
in her complexion. But in that predominance of 
the paler flower, there was nothing sickly or lan- 
guid ; it was the true natural colour of health, and 
corresponded in a peculiar degree with features, 
which seemed calculated to express a contemplative 
and high-minded character. When Minna Troil 
heard a tale of woe or of injustice, it was then her 
blood rushed to her cheeks, and showed plainly how 
warm it heat, notwithstanding the generally serious, 
composed, and retiring disposition, which her coun- 
tenance and demeanour seemed to exhibit. If stran- 
gers sometimes conceived that these fine features 
were clouded by melancholy, for which her age and 
situation could scarce have given occasion, they were 


THE PIRATE. 


29 


soon satisfied, upon further acquaintance, that the 
placid, mild quietude of her disposition, and the 
mental energy of a character which was but little 
interested in ordinary and trivial occurrences, was 
the real cause of her gravity ; and most men, when 
they knew that her melancholy had no ground in 
real sorrow, and was only the aspiration of a soul 
bent on more important objects than those by which 
she was surrounded, might have wished her what- 
ever could add to her happiness, but could scarce 
have desired that, graceful as she was in her natu- 
ral and unaffected seriousness, she should change 
that deportment for one more gay. In short, not- 
withstanding our wish to have avoided that hack- 
neyed simile of an angel, we cannot avoid saying 
there was something in the serious beauty of her 
aspect, in the measured, yet graceful ease of her 
motions, in the music of her voice, and the serene 
purity of her eye, that seemed as if Minna Troil 
belonged naturally to some higher and better 
sphere, and was only the chance visitant of a world 
that was not worthy of her. 

The scarcely less beautiful, equally lovely, and 
equally innocent Brenda, was of a complexion as 
differing from her sister, as they differed in cha- 
racter, taste, and expression. Her profuse locks 
were of that paly brown which receives from the 
passing sunbeam a tinge of gold, but darkens again 
when the ray has passed from it. Her eye, her 
mouth, the beautiful row of teeth, which in her 
innocent vivacity were frequently disclosed; the 
fresh, yet not too bright glow of a healthy com- 
plexion, tinging a skin like the drifted snow, spoke 
her genuine Scandinavian descent. A fairy form, 
less tall than that of Minna, but still more finely 


30 


THE PIRATE. 


moulded into symmetry — a careless, and almost 
childish lightness of step — an eye that seemed to 
look on every object with pleasure, from a natural 
and serene cheerfulness of disposition, attracted 
even more general admiration than the charms of 
her sister, though perhaps that which Minna did 
excite might be of a more intense as well as more 
reverential character. 

The dispositions of these lovely sisters were not 
less different than their complexions. In the kindly 
affections, neither could be said to excel the other, 
so much were they attached to their father and to 
each other. But the cheerfulness of Brenda mixed 
itself with the every-day business of life, and 
seemed inexhaustible in its profusion. The less 
buoyant spirit of her sister appeared to bring to 
society a contented wish to be interested and pleased 
with what was going forward, but was rather 
placidly carried along with the stream of mirth and 
pleasure, than disposed to aid its progress by any 
efforts of her own. She endured mirth, rather 
than enjoyed it ; and the pleasures in which she 
most delighted, were those of a graver and more 
solitary cast. The knowledge which is derived 
from books was beyond her reach. Zetland af- 
forded few opportunities, in those days, of study- 
ing the lessons, bequeathed 

“ By dead men to their kind ; ” 

and Magnus Troil, such as we have described him, 
was not a person within whose mansion the means 
of such knowledge were to be acquired. But the 
book of nature was before Minna, that noblest of 
volumes, where we are ever called to wonder and 
to admire, even when we cannot understand. The 


> 


THE PIRATE. 


31 


plants of those wild regions, the shells on the shores, 
and the long list of feathered clans which haunt 
their cliffs and eyries, were as well known to Minna 
Troil as to the most experienced fowlers. Her 
powers of observation were wonderful, and little 
interrupted by other tones of feeling. The informa- 
tion which she acquired by habits of patient atten- 
tion, was indelibly riveted in a naturally powerful 
memory. She had also a high feeling for the soli- 
tary and melancholy grandeur of the scenes in which 
she was placed. The ocean, in all its varied forms 
of sublimity and terror — the tremendous cliffs that 
resound to the ceaseless roar of the billows, and 
the clang of the sea-fowl, had for Minna a charm in 
almost every state in which the changing seasons 
exhibited them. With the enthusiastic feelings 
proper to the romantic race from which her mother 
descended, the love of natural objects was to her a 
passion capable not only of occupying, but at times 
of agitating, her mind. Scenes upon which her sis- 
ter looked with a sense of transient awe or emotion, 
which vanished on her return from witnessing them, 
continued long to fill Minna’s imagination, not only 
in solitude, and in the silence of the night, but in 
the hours of society. So that sometimes when she 
sat like a beautiful statue, a present member of the 
domestic circle, her thoughts were far absent, wan- 
dering on the wild sea-shore, and among the yet 
wilder mountains of her native isles. And yet, 
when recalled to conversation, and mingling in it 
with interest, there were few to whom her friends 
were more indebted for enhancing its enjoyments ; 
and although something in her manners claimed 
deference (notwithstanding her early youth) as 
well as affection, even her gay, lovely, and amiable 


32 


THE PIRATE. 


sister was not more generally beloved than the 
more retired and pensive Minna. 

Indeed, the two lovely sisters were not only the 
delight of their friends, but the pride of those 
islands, where the inhabitants of a certain rank 
were blended, by the remoteness of their situation 
and the general hospitality of their habits, into one 
friendly community. A wandering poet and parcel- 
musician, who, after going through various fortunes, 
had returned to end his days as he could in his 
native islands, had celebrated the daughters of 
Magnus in a poem, which he entitled Night and 
Day ; and in his description of Minna, might almost 
be thought to have anticipated, though only in a 
rude outline, the exquisite lines of Lord Byron, — 

“ She walks in beauty, like the night 
Of cloudless climes and starry skies ; 

And all that’s best of dark and bright 
Meet in her aspect, and her eyes : 

Thus mellow’d to that tender light 
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.” 

Their father loved the maidens both so well, that 
it might be difficult to say which he loved best; 
saving that, perchance, he liked his graver damsel 
better in the walk without doors, and his merry 
maiden better by the fireside ; that he more desired 
the society of Minna when he was sad, and that 
of Brenda when he was mirthful ; and, what was 
nearly the same thing, preferred Minna before noon, 
and Brenda after the glass had circulated in the 
evening. 

But it was still more extraordinary, that the affec- 
tions of Mordaunt Mertoun seemed to hover with 
the same impartiality as those of their father 


THE PIRATE. 


33 


betwixt the two lovely sisters. From his boyhood, 
as we have noticed, he had been a frequent inmate 
of the residence of Magnus at Burgh- Westra, al- 
though it lay nearly twenty miles distant from 
Jarlshof. The impassable character of the country 
betwixt these places, extending over hills covered 
with loose and quaking bog, and frequently inter- 
sected by the creeks or arms of the sea, which 
indent the island on either side, as well as by 
fresh-water streams and lakes, rendered the journey 
difficult, and even dangerous, in the dark season ; 
yet, as soon as the state of his father’s mind warned 
him to absent himself, Mordaunt, at every risk, and 
under every difficulty, was pretty sure to be found 
the next day at Burgh- Westra, having achieved his 
journey in less time than would have been employed 
perhaps by the most active native. 

He was of course set down as a wooer of one 
of the daughters of Magnus, by the public of Zet- 
land ; and when the old Udaller’s great partiality 
to the youth was considered, nobody doubted that 
he might aspire to the hand of either of those dis- 
tinguished beauties, with as large a share of islets, 
rocky moorland, and shore-fishings, as might be the 
fitting portion of a favoured child, and with the pre- 
sumptive prospect of possessing half the domains of 
the ancient house of Troil, when their present owner 
should be no more. This seemed all a reasonable 
speculation, and, in theory at least, better constructed 
than many that are current through the world as 
unquestionable facts. But, alas ! all that sharpness 
of observation which could be applied to the conduct 
of the parties, failed to determine the main poinj;, 
to which of the young persons, namely, the atten- 
tions of Mordaunt were peculiarly devoted. He 

VOL. I. — 3 


THE flRATE. 


seemed, in general, to treat them as an affectionate 
and attached brother might have treated two sisters, 
so equally dear to him that a breath would have 
turned the scale of affection. Or if at any time, 
which often happened, the one maiden appeared the 
more especial object of his attention, it seemed only 
to be because circumstances called her peculiar 
talents and disposition into more particular and 
immediate exercise. 

Both the sisters were accomplished in the simple 
music of the north, and Mordaunt, who was their 
assistant, and sometimes their preceptor, when they 
were practising this delightful art, might be now 
seen assisting Minna in the acquisition of those wild, 
solemn, and simple airs, to which scalds and harpers 
sung of old the deeds of heroes, and presently found 
equally active in teaching Brenda the more lively 
and complicated music, which their father’s affection 
caused to be brought from the English or Scottish 
capital for the use of his daughters. And while 
conversing with them, Mordaunt, who mingled a 
strain of deep and ardent enthusiasm with the gay 
and ungovernable spirits of youth, was equally ready 
to enter into the wild and poetical visions of Minna, 
or into the lively and often humorous chat of her 
gayer sister. In short, so little did he seem to attach 
himself to either damsel exclusively, that he was 
sometimes heard to say, that Minna never looked so 
lovely, as when her lighthearted sister had induced 
her, for the time, to forget her habitual gravity ; or 
Brenda so interesting, as when she sat listening, a 
subdued and affected partaker of the deep pathos 
of her sister Minna. 

The public of the mainland were, therefore, to 
use the hunter’s phrase, at fault in their farther con- 


THE PIRATE. 


35 


elusions, and could but determine, after long vacilla- 
ting betwixt the maidens, that the young man was 
positively to marry one of them, hut which of the 
two* could only he determined when his approaching 
manhood, or the interference of stout old Magnus, 
the father, should teach Master Mordaunt Mertoun 
to know his own mind. “It was a pretty thing, 
indeed,” they usually concluded, “ that he, no native 
born, and possessed of no visible means of subsis- 
tence that is known to any one, should presume to 
hesitate, or affect to have the power of selection and 
choice, betwixt the two most distinguished beauties 
of Zetland. If they were Magnus Troil, they would 
soon be at the bottom of the matter ” — and so forth. 
All which remarks were only whispered, for the 
hasty disposition of the Udallerhad too much of the 
old Norse fire about it to render it safe for any one 
to become an unauthorized intermeddler with his 
family affairs ; and thus stood the relation of Mor- 
daunt Mertoun to the family of Mr. Troil of Burgh- 
Westra, when the following incidents took place. 


CHAPTER IV. 


This is no pilgrim’s morning — yon grey mist 
Lies upon hill, and dale, and field, and forest, 

Like the dun wimple of a new-made widow; 

And, by my faith, although my heart be soft. 

I’d rather hear that widow weep and sigh. 

And tell the virtues of the dear departed, 

Than, when the tempest sends his voice abroad. 

Be subject to its fury. 

The Double Nuptials. 

The spring was far advanced, when, after a week 
spent in sport and festivity at Burgh -Westra, Mor- 
daunt Mertoun hade adieu to the family, pleading 
the necessity of his return to Jarlshof. The pro- 
posal was combated by the maidens, and more de- 
cidedly by Magnus himself : He saw no occasion 
whatever for Mordaunt returning to Jarlshof. If his 
father desired to see him, which, by the way, Mag- 
nus did not believe, Mr. Mertoun had only to throw 
himself into the stern of Sweyn’s boat, or betake 
himself to a pony, if he liked a land journey better, 
and he would see not only his son, but twenty folk 
besides, who would be most happy to find that he 
had not lost the use of his tongue entirely during 
his long solitude ; “ although I must own,” added 
the worthy Udaller, “ that when he lived among us, 
nobody ever made less use of it.” 

Mordaunt acquiesced both in what respected his 
father’s taciturnity, and his dislike to general so- 
ciety ; but suggested, at the same time, that the first 
circumstance rendered his own immediate return 


THE PIRATE. 


37 


more necessary, as he was the usual channel of com- 
munication betwixt his father and others ; and that 
the second corroborated the same necessity, since 
Mr. Mertoun’s having no other society whatever 
seemed a weighty reason why his son’s should be 
restored to him without loss of time. As to his 
father’s cdming to Burgh-Westra, ‘Hhey might as 
well,” he said, “ expect to see Sumburgh Cape come 
thither.” 

“And that would he a cumbrous guest,” said 
Magnus. “ But you will stop for our dinner to-day ? 
There are the families of Muness, Quendale, Thors- 
livoe, and I know not who else, are expected ; and, 
besides the thirty that were in house this blessed 
night, we shall have as many more as chamber and 
bower, and barn and boat-house, can furnish with 
beds, or with barley-straw, — and you will leave all 
this behind you ! ” 

“ And the blithe dance at night,” added Brenda, 
in a tone betwixt reproach and vexation ; “ and the 
young men from the Isle of Paba that are to dance 
the sword-dance, whom shall we find to match them, 
for the honour of the Main ? ” 

“ There is many a merry dancer on the mainland, 
Brenda,” replied Mordaunt, “ even if I should never 
rise on tiptoe again. And where good dancers are 
found, Brenda Troil will always find the best part- 
ner. I must trip it to-night through the Wastes of 
Dunrossness.” 

“Do not say so, Mordaunt,” said Minna, who, 
during this conversation, had been looking from the 
window something anxiously; “go not, to-day at 
least, through the Wastes of Dunrossness.” 

“And why not to-day, Minna,” said Mordaunt, 
laughing, “ any more than to-morrow ? ” 


THE PIRATE. 


38 

“0, the morning mist lies heavy upon yonder 
chain of isles, nor has it permitted us since daybreak 
even a single glimpse of Fitful-head, the lofty cape 
that concludes yon splendid range of mountains. 
The fowl are winging their way to the shore, and 
the shelldrake seems, through the mist, as large as 
the scart.^ See, the very sheerwaters and bonxies 
are making to the cliffs for shelter.” 

“ And they will ride out a gale against a king’s 
frigate,” said her father; “there is foul weather 
when they cut and run.” 

“ Stay, then, with us,” said Minna to her friend ; 
“ the storm will be dreadful, yet it will be grand to 
see it from Burgh-Westra, if we have no friend ex- 
posed to its fury. See, the air is close and sultry, 
though the season is yet so early, and the day so 
calm, that not a windlestraw moves on the heath. 
Stay with us, Mordaunt ; the storm which these 
signs announce will be a dreadful one.” 

“ I must be gone the sooner,” was the conclusion 
of Mordaunt, who could not deny the signs, which 
had not escaped his own quick observation. “If 
the storm be too fierce, I will abide for the night at 
Stourburgh.” 

“ What ! ” said Magnus ; “ will you leave us for 
the new chamberlain’s new Scotch tacksman, who 
is to teach all us Zetland savages new ways ? Take 
your own gate, my lad, if that is the song you 
sing.” 

“ Nay,” said Mordaunt ; “ I had only some cu- 
riosity to see the new implements he has brought.” 

1 The cormorant ; which may be seen frequently dashing in 
wild flight along the roosts and tides of Zetland, and yet more 
often drawn up in ranks ou some ledge of rock, like a body of the 
Black Bruns wickers in 181 . 


THE PIRATE. 


39 


" Ay, ay, ferlies make fools fain. I would like to 
know if his new plough will bear against a Zetland 
rock ? ” answered Magnus. 

“ I must not pass Stourburgh on the journey,” 
said the youth, deferring to his patron’s prejudice 
against innovation, “ if this boding weather bring on 
tempest ; but if it only break in rain, as is most 
probable, I am not likely to be melted in the 
wetting.” 

“ It will not soften into rain alone,” said Minna 
“see how much heavier the clouds fall every mo- 
ment, and see these weather- gaws that streak the 
lead-coloured mass with partial gleams of faded red 
and purple.” 

“ I see them all,” said Mordaunt ; “ but they 
only tell me I have no time to tarry here. Adieu, 
Minna ; I will send you the eagle’s feathers, if an 
eagle can be found on Fair-isle or Foulah. And 
fare thee well, my pretty Brenda, and keep a 
thought for me, should the Paba men dance ever so 
well.” 

“ Take care of yourself, since go you will,” said 
both sisters, together. 

Old Magnus scolded them formally for supposing 
there was any danger to an active young fellow from 
a spring gale, whether by sea or land ; yet ended 
by giving his own caution also to Mordaunt, advis- 
ing him seriously to delay his journey, or at least 
to stop at Stourburgh. “ For,” said he, “ second 
thoughts are best ; and as this Scottishman’s howf 
lies right under your lee, why, take any port in a 
storm. But do not be assured to find the door on 
latch, let the storm blow ever so hard ; there are 
such matters as bolts and bars in Scotland, (e) though, 
thanks to Saint Ronald, they are unknown here, 


40 


THE PIRATE. 


save that great lock on the old Castle of Scalloway, 
that all men run to see — may be they make part of 
this man’s improvements. But go, Mordaunt, since 
go you will. You should drink a stirrup-cup now, 
were you three years older, but boys should never 
drink, excepting after dinner ; I will drink it for 
you, that good customs may not be broken, or 
bad luck come of it. Here is your bonally, my lad.” 
And so saying, he quaffed a rummer glass of brandy 
with as much impunity as if it had been spring- 
water. Thus regretted and cautioned on all hands, 
Mordaunt took leave of the hospitable household, 
and looking back at the comforts with which it was 
surrounded, and the dense smoke that rolled up- 
wards from its chimneys, he first recollected the 
guestless and solitary desolation of Jarlshof, then 
compared with the sullen and moody melancholy 
of his father’s temper the warm kindness of those 
whom he was leaving, and could not refrain from 
a sigh at the thoughts which forced themselves on 
his imagination. 

The signs of the tempest did not dishonour the 
predictions of Minna. Mordaunt had not advanced 
three hours on his journey, before the wind, which 
had been so deadly still in the morning, began at 
first to wail and sigh, as if bemoaning beforehand 
the evils which it might perpetrate in its fury, like 
a madman in the gloomy state of dejection which 
precedes his fit of violence ; then gradually increas- 
ing, the gale howled, raged, and roared, with the 
full fury of a northern storm. It was accompanied 
by showers of rain mixed with hail, that dashed with 
the most unrelenting rage against the hills and rocks 
with which the traveller was surrounded, distracting 
his attention, in spite of his utmost exertions, and 


THE PIHATE. 


41 


rendering it very difficult for him to keep the di- 
rection of his journey in a country where there is 
neither road, nor even the slightest track to direct 
the steps of the wanderer, and where he is often in- 
terrupted by brooks as well as large pools of water, 
lakes, and lagoons. All these inland waters were 
now lashed into sheets of tumbling foam, much of 
which, carried off by the fury of the whirlwind, was 
mingled with the gale, and transported far from the 
waves of which it had lately made a part; while 
the salt relish of the drift which was pelted against 
his face, showed Mordaunt that the spray of the 
more distant ocean, disturbed to frenzy by the 
storm, was mingled with that of the inland lakes 
and streams. 

Amidst this hideous combustion of the elemenls, 
Mordaunt Mertoun struggled forward as one to 
whom such elemental war was familiar, and who 
regarded the exertions which it required to with- 
stand its fury, but as a mark of resolution and man- 
hood. He felt even, as happens usually to those 
who endure great hardsliips, that the exertion ne- 
cessary to subdue them, is in itself a kind of elevat- 
ing triumph. To see and distinguish his path when 
the cattle were driven from the hill, and the very 
fowls from the firmament, was but the stronger 
proof of his own superiority. “ They shall not hear 
of me at Burgh- Westra,” said he to himself, ‘‘as 
they heard of old doited' Eingan Ewenson’s boat, 
that foundered betwixt roadstead and key. I am 
more of a cragsman than to mind fire or water, wave 
by sea, or quagmire by land.” Thus he struggled 
on, buffeting with the storm, supplying the want 
of the usual signs by which travellers directed 
their progress, (for rock, mountain, and headland, 


42 


THE PIRATE. 


were shrouded in mist and darkness,) by the in^ 
stinctive sagacity with which long acquaintance 
with these wilds had taught him to mark every 
minute object, which could serve in such circum- 
stances to regulate his course. Thus, we repeat, 
he struggled onward, occasionally standing still, or 
even lying down, when the gust was most impetu- 
ous ; making way against it when it was somewhat 
lulled, by a rapid and bold advance even in its 
very current; or, when this was impossible, by a 
movement resembling that of a vessel working to 
windward by short tacks, but never yielding one 
inch of the way which he had fought so hard to 
gain. 

Yet, notwithstanding Mordaunt’s experience and 
resolution, his situation was sufficiently uncomfort- 
able, and even precarious ; not because his sailor’s 
jacket and trowsers, the common dress of young 
men through these isles when on a journey, were 
thoroughly wet, for that might have taken place 
within the same brief time, in any ordinary day, 
in this watery climate ; but the real danger was, 
that, notwithstanding his utmost exertions, he made 
very slow way through brooks that were sending 
their waters all abroad, through morasses drowned 
in double deluges of moisture, which rendered all 
the ordinary passes more than usually dangerous, 
and repeatedly obliged the traveller to perform a 
considerable circuit, which in the usual case was 
unnecessary. Thus repeatedly baffled, notwithstand- 
ing his youth and strength, Mordaunt, after main- 
taining a dogged conflict with wind, rain, and the 
fatigue of a prolonged journey, was truly happy, 
when, not without having been more than once 
mistaken in his road, he at length found himself 


THE PIRATE. 


43 


within sight of the house of Stourburgh, or Harfra; 
for the names were indifferently given to the resi- 
dence of Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley, who was the 
chosen missionary of the Chamberlain of Orkney 
and Zetland, a speculative person, who designed, 
through the medium of Triptolemus, to introduce 
into the Ultima Thule of the Romans, a spirit of 
improvement, which at that early period was scarce 
known to exist in Scotland itself. 

At length, and with much difficulty, Mordaunt 
reached the house of this worthy agriculturist, the 
only^ refuge from the relentless storm which he 
could hope to meet with for several miles; and 
going straight to the door, with the most undoubt- 
ing confidence of instant admission, he was not a 
little surprised to find it not merely latched, which 
the weather might excuse, but even bolted, a thing 
which, as Magnus Troil has already intimated, was 
almost unknown in the Archipelago. To knock, to 
call, and finally to batter the door with staff and 
stones, were the natural resources of the youth, who 
was rendered alike impatient by the pelting of the 
storm, and by encountering such most unexpected 
and unusual obstacles to instant admission. As he 
was suffered, however, for many minutes to exhaust 
his impatience in noise and clamour, without re- 
ceiving any reply, we will employ them in inform- 
ing the reader who Triptolemus Yellowley was, and 
how he came by a name so singular. 

Old Jasper Yellowley, the father of Triptolemus, 
(though born at the foot of Roseberry-Topping,) 
had been come over by a certain noble Scottish Earl, 
who, proving too far north for canny Yorkshire, had 
persuaded him to accept of a farm in the Mearns, 
where, it is unnecessary to add, he found matters 


44 


THE HRATE. 


very different from what he had expected. It was 
in vain that the stout farmer set manfully to work, 
to counterbalance, by superior skill, the inconve- 
niences arising from a cold soil and a weeping cli- 
mate. These might have been probably overcome ; 
hut his neighbourhood to the Grampians exposed 
him eternally to that species of visitation from the 
plaided gentry, who dwelt within their skirts, which 
made young Norval a warrior and a hero, but only 
converted Jasper Yellowley into a poor man. This 
was, indeed, balanced in some sort by the impres- 
sion which his ruddy cheek and robust formJiad 
the fortune to make upon Miss Barbara Clinkscale, 
daughter to the umquhile, and sister to the then 
existing, Clinkscale of that ilk. 

This was thought a horrid and unnatural union 
in the neighbourhood, considering that the house of 
Clinkscale had at least as great a share of Scottish 
pride as of Scottish parsimony, and was amply en- 
dowed with both. But Miss Babie had her hand- 
some fortune of two thousand marks at her own 
disposal, was a woman of spirit who had been major 
and sui juris, (as the writer who drew the contract 
assured her,) for full twenty years ; so she set con- 
sequences and commentaries alike at defiance, and 
wedded the hearty Yorkshire yeoman. Her brother 
and her more wealthy kinsmen drew off in disgust, 
and almost disowned their degraded relative. But 
the house of Clinkscale was allied (like every other 
family in Scotland at the time) to a set of rela- 
tions who were not so nice — tenth and sixteenth 
cousins, who not only acknowledged their kins- 
woman Babie after her marriage with Yellowley 
but even condescended to eat beans and bacon 
(though the latter was then the abomination of the 


THE PIRATE. 


45 


‘Scotch as much as of the Jews) with her husband, 
and would willingly have cemented the friendship 
by borrowing «a little cash from him, had not his 
good lady (who understood trap as well as any 
woman in the Mearns) put a negative on this ad- 
vance to intimacy. Indeed she knew how to make 
young Deilbelicket, (/) old Dougald Bares word, 
the Laird of Bandy brawl, and others, pay for the 
hospitality which she did not think proper to deny 
them, by rendering them useful in her negotia- 
tions with the lightlianded lads beyond the Cairn, 
who, finding their late object of plunder was now 
allied to “kend folks, and owned by them at kirk 
and market,” became satisfied, on a moderate yearly 
composition, to desist from their depredations. 

This eminent success reconciled Jasper to the 
dominion which his wife began to assume over 
him; and which was much confirmed by her prov- 
ing to be — let me see — what is the prettiest mode 
of expressing it ? — in the family way. On this 
occasion, Mrs. Yellowley had a remarkable dream, 
as is the usual practice of teeming mothers previ- 
ous to the birth of an illustrious offspring. She 
‘‘ was a-dreamed,” as her husband expressed it, that 
she was safely delivered of a plough, drawn by three 
yoke of Angus-shire oxen ; and being a mighty in- 
vestigator into such portents, she sat herself down 
with her gossips, to consider what the thing might 
mean. Honest Jasper ventured, with much hesita- 
tion, to intimate his own opinion, that the vision 
had reference rather to things past than things 
future, and might have been occasioned by his 
wife’s nerves having been a little startled by meet- 
ing in the loan above the house his own great 
plough with the six oxen, which were the pride of 


46 


THE PIRATE. 


his heart. But the good cummers ^ raised such a 
hue and cry against this exposition, that Jasper 
was fain to put his fingers in his ears, and to run 
out of the apartment. 

“ Hear to him,” said an old whigamore carline — 
“ hear to him, wi’ his owsen, that are as an idol to 
him, even as the calf of Bethel ! Na, na — it’s nae 
pleugh of the fiesh that the bonny lad-bairn — for 
a lad it sail be — sail e’er striddle between the 
stilts o’ — it’s the pleugh of the spirit — and I trust 
mysell to see him wag the head o’ him in a pu’pit ; 
or, what’s better, on a hill-side.” 

“ Now the deil’s in your whiggery,” said the old 
Lady Glenprosing ; ‘‘ wad ye hae our cummer’s bonny 
lad-bairn wag the head aff his shouthers like your 
godly Mess James Guthrie, {g) that ye hald such a 
clavering about ? — Na, na, he sail walk a mair siccar 
path, and be a dainty curate — and say he should 
live to be a bishop, what the waur wad he be ? ” 

The gauntlet thus fairly flung down by one sibyl, 
was caught up by another, and the controversy be- 
tween presbytery and episcopacy raged, roared, or 
rather screamed, a round of cinnamon-water serving 
only like oil to the flame, till Jasper entered with 
the plough-staff ; and by the awe of his presence, 
and the shame of misbehaving “ before the stranger 
man,” imposed some conditions of silence upon the 
disputants. 

I do not know whether it was impatience to give 
to the light a being destined to such high and doubt- 
ful fates, or whether poor Dame Yellowley was rather 
frightened at the hurly-burly which had taken place 
in her presence, but she was taken suddenly ill; 
and, contrary to the formula in such cases used and 
1 1 . e. Gossips. 


THE PIRATE. 


47 


provided, was soon reported to be “ a good deal 
worse than was to be expected.” She took the 
opportunity (having still all her wits about her) to 
extract from her sympathetic husband two prom- 
ises ; first, that he would christen the child, whose 
birth was like to cost her so dear, by a name in- 
dicative of the vision with which she had been 
favoured ; and next, that he would educate him for 
the ministry. The canny Yorkshireman, thinking 
she had a good title at present to dictate in such 
matters, subscribed to all she required. A man-child 
was accordingly born under these conditions, but 
the state of the mother did not permit her for many 
days to enquire how far they had been complied 
with. When she was in some degree convalescent, 
she was informed, that as it was thought fit the child 
should be immediately christened, it had received 
the name of Triptolemus ; the Curate, who was a 
man of some classical skill, conceiving that this 
epithet contained a handsome and classical allusion 
to the visionary plough, with its triple yoke of oxen. 
Mrs. Yellowley was not much delighted with the 
manner in which her request had been complied 
with ; but grumbling being to as little purpose as 
in the celebrated case of Tristram Shandy, she e’en 
sat down contented with the heathenish name, and 
endeavoured to counteract the effects it might pro- 
duce upon the taste and feelings of the nominee, 
by such an education as might put him above the 
slightest thought of sacks, coulters, stilts, mould- 
boards, or any thing connected with the servile 
drudgery of the plough. 

Jasper, sage Yorkshireman, smiled slyly in his 
sleeve, conceiving that young Trippie was likely to 
prove a chip of the old block; and would rather take 


48 


THE PIRATE. 


after the jolly Yorkshire yeoman, than the gentle 
but somewhat aigre blood of the house of Clink- 
scale. He remarked, with suppressed glee, that the 
tune which best answered the purpose of a lullaby 
was the “ Ploughman’s Whistle,” and the first words 
the infant learned to stammer were the names of the 
oxen ; moreover, that the “ bern ” preferred home- 
brewed ale to Scotch twopenny, and never quitted 
hold of the tankard with so much reluctance as 
when there had been, by some manoeuvre of Jasper’s 
own device, a double straik of malt allowed to the 
brewing, above that which was sanctioned by the 
most liberal recipe, of which his dame’s household 
thrift admitted. Besides this, when no other means 
could be fallen upon to divert an occasional fit of 
squalling, his father observed that Trip could be 
always silenced by jingling a bridle at his ear. 
From all which symptoms he used to swear in pri- 
vate, that the boy would prove true Yorkshire, and 
mother and mother’s kin would have small share 
of him. 

Meanwhile, and within a year after the birth 
of Triptolemus, Mrs. Yellowley bore a daughter, 
named after herself Barbara, who, even in earliest 
infancy, exhibited the pinched nose and thin lips 
by which the Clinkscale family were distinguished 
amongst the inhabitants of the Mearns ; and as her 
childhood advanced, the readiness with which she 
seized, and the tenacity wherewith she detained, the 
playthings of Triptolemus, besides a desire to bite, 
pinch, and scratch, on slight, or no provocation, were 
all considered by attentive observers as proofs, that 
Miss Babie would prove “her mother over again.” 
Malicious people did not stick to say, that the acri- 
mony of the Clinkscale blood had not, on this occa- 


THE PIRATE. 


49 


sion, been cooled and sweetened by that of Old 
England ; that young Deilbelicket was much about 
the house, and they could not but think it odd that 
Mrs. Yellowley, who, as the whole world knew, 
gave nothing for nothing, should be so uncommonly 
attentive to heap the trencher, and to fill the caup, 
of an idle blackguard ne’er-do-weel. But when 
folk had once looked upon the austere and awfully 
virtuous countenance of Mrs. Yellowley, they did 
full justice to her propriety of conduct, and Deil- 
belicket’s delicacy of taste. 

Meantime young Triptolemus, having received 
such instructions as the Curate could give him, (for 
though Dame Yellowley adhered to the persecuted 
remnant, her jolly husband, edified by the black 
gown and prayer-book, still conformed to the church 
as by law established,) was, in due process of time, 
sent to Saint Andrews to prosecute his studies. He 
went, it is true ; but with an eye turned back with 
sad remembrances on his father’s plough, his father’s 
pancakes, and his father’s ale, for which the small- 
beer of the college, commonly there termed “ thor- 
ough-go-nimble,” furnished a poor substitute. Yet 
he advanced in his learning, being found, however, 
to show a particular favour to such authors of anti- 
quity as had made the improvement of the soil the 
object of their researches. He endured the Buco- 
lics of Virgil — the Georgies he had by heart — but 
the ^neid he could not away with ; and he was par- 
ticularly severe upon the celebrated line expressing 
a charge of cavalry, because, as he understood the 
word putrein} he opined that the combatants, in 
their inconsiderate ardour, galloped over a new- 
manured ploughed field. Cato, the Roman Censor 

1 Quadrupedumque putrem souitu quat’t ungula campum. 

VOL. I — 4. 


50 


THE PIRATE. 


was his favourite among classical heroes and philos- 
ophers, not on account of the strictness of his morals, 
but because of his treatise, de Be Bustica. He had 
ever in his mouth the phrase of Cicero, Jam nemi- 
nem antepones Catoni. He thought well of Palla- 
dius, and of Terentius Varro, but Columella was his 
pocket-companion. To these ancient worthies, he 
added the more modern Tusser, Hartlib, and other 
writers on rural economics, not forgetting the lucu- 
brations of the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, and 
such of the better-informed Philomaths, who, in- 
stead of loading their almanacks with vain predic- 
tions of political events, pretended to see what seeds 
would grow and what would not, and direct the at- 
tention of their readers to that course of cultivation 
from which the production of good crops may be 
safely predicted ; modest sages, in fine, who, careless 
of the rise and downfall of empires, content them- 
selves with pointing out the fit seasons to reap and 
sow, with a fair guess at the weather which each 
month will be likely to present; as, for example, 
that if Heaven pleases, we shall have snow in Jan- 
uary, and the author will stake his reputation that 
July proves, on the whole, a month of sunshine. 
Now, although the Rector of Saint Leonard’s was 
greatly pleased, in general, with the quiet, labori- 
ous, and studious bent of Triptolemus Yellowley, 
and deemed him, in so far, worthy of a name of 
four syllables having a Latin termination, yet he 
relished not, by any means, his exclusive attention 
to his favourite authors. It savoured of the earth, 
he said, if not of something worse, to have a man’s 
mind always grovelling in mould, stercorated or un- 
stercorated ; and he pointed out, but in vain, history, 
and poetry, and divinity, as more elevating subjects 


THE PIRATE. 


5i 

of occupation. Triptolemus Yellowley was obstinate 
in his own course : Of the battle of Pharsalia, he 
thought not as it affected the freedom of the world, 
but dwelt on the rich crop which the Emathian 
fields were likely to produce the next season. In 
vernacular poetry, Triptolemus could scarce be pre- 
vailed upon to read a single couplet, excepting old 
Tusser, as aforesaid, whose Hundred Points of Good 
Husbandry he had got by heart ; and excepting also 
Piers Ploughman’s Vision, which, charmed with the 
title, he bought with avidity from a packman, but 
after reading the two first pages, flung it into the 
fire as an impudent and misnamed political libel. 
As to divinity, he summed that matter up by re- 
minding his instructors, that to labour the earth and 
win his bread with the toil of his body and sweat 
of his brow, was the lot imposed upon fallen man ; 
and, for his part, he was resolved to discharge, to 
the best of his abilities, a task so obviously neces- 
sary to existence, leaving others to speculate as 
much as they would, upon the more recondite mys- 
teries of theology. 

With a spirit so much narrowed and limited to 
the concerns of rural life, it may be doubted whether 
the proficiency of Triptolemus in learning, or th-e 
use he was like to make of his acquisitions, would 
have much gratified the ambitious hope of his affec- 
tionate mother. It is true, he expressed no reluct- 
ance to embrace the profession of a clergyman, 
which suited well enough with the habitual personal 
indolence which sometimes attaches to speculative 
dispositions. He had views, to speak plainly, (I 
wish they were peculiar to himself,) of cultivating the 
glebe six days in the week, preaching on the seventh 
with due regularity, and dining with some fat frank- 


52 


THE PIRATE. 


lin or country laird, with whom he could smoke a 
pipe and drink a tankard after dinner, and mix in 
secret conference on the exhaustless subject, 

Quid faciat Isetas segetes. 

Now, this plan, besides that it indicated nothing 
of what was then called the root of the matter, im- 
plied necessarily the possession of a manse; and 
the possession of a manse inferred compliance with 
the doctrines of prelacy, and other enormities of the 
time. There was some question how far manse and 
glebe, stipend, both victual and money, might have 
outbalanced the good lady’s predisposition towards 
Presbytery ; but her zeal was not put to so severe a 
trial. She died before her son had completed his 
studies, leaving her afflicted spouse just as discon- 
solate as was to be expected. The first act of old 
Jasper’s undivided administration was to recall his 
son from Saint Andrews, in order to obtain his 
assistance in his domestic labours. And here it 
might have been supposed that our Triptolemus, 
summoned to carry into practice what he had so 
fondly studied in theory, must have been, to use a 
simile which he would have thought lively, like a 
cow entering upon a clover park. Alas, mistaken 
thoughts, and deceitful hopes of mankind ! 

A laughing philosopher, the Democritus of our 
day, once, in a moral lecture, compared human life 
to a table pierced with a number of holes, each of 
which has a pin made exactly to ht it, but which 
pins being stuck in hastily, and without selection, 
chance leads inevitably to the most awkward mis- 
takes. “For how often do we see,” the orator pa- 
thetically concluded, — “ how often, I say, do we see 
the round man stuck into the three-cornered hole 1 ” 


THE tIRATE. 


53 


This new illustration of the vagaries of fortune set 
every one present into convulsions of laughter, ex- 
cepting one fat alderman, who seemed to make the 
case his own, and insisted that it was no jesting 
matter. To take up the simile, however, which is 
an excellent one, it is plain that Triptolemus Yel- 
lowley had been shaken out of the bag at least a 
hundred years too soon. If he had come on the 
stage in our own time, that is, if he had flourished 
at any time within these thirty or forty years, he 
could not have missed to have held the office of 
vice-president of some eminent agricultural society, 
and to have transacted all the business thereof under 
the auspices of some noble duke or lord, who, as the 
matter might happen, either knew, or did not know, 
the difference betwixt a horse and a cart, and a cart- 
horse. He could not have missed such preferment, 
for he was exceedingly learned in all those partic- 
ulars, which, being of no consequence in actual 
practice, go, of course, a great way to constitute 
the character of a connoisseur in any art, and espe- 
cially in agriculture. But, alas ! Triptolemus Yel- 
lowley had, as we already have hinted, come into 
the world at least a century too soon ; for, instead 
of sitting in an arm-chair, with a hammer in his 
hand, and a bumper of port before him, giving forth 
the toast, — “ To breeding, in all its branches,” his 
father planted him betwixt the stilts of a plough, 
and invited him to guide the oxen, on whose beau- 
ties he would, in our day, have descanted, and 
whose rumps he would not have goaded, but have 
carved. Old Jasper complained, that although no 
one talked so well of common and several, wheat 
and rape, fallow and lea, as his learned son, (whom 
he always called Tolimus,) yet, “dang it,” added the 


54 


THE PIRATE. 


Seneca, “ nought thrives wi’ un — nought thrives wi’ 
un ! ” It was still worse, when Jasper, becoming 
frail and ancient, was obliged, as happened in the 
course of a few years, gradually to yield up the reins 
of government to the academical neophyte. 

As if Nature had meant him a spite, he had got 
one of the dourest and most intractable farms in the 
Mearns, to try conclusions withal, a place which 
seemed to yield every thing but what the agricul- 
turist wanted ; for there were plenty of thistles, 
which indicates dry land ; and store of fern, which 
is said to intimate deep land ; and nettles, which 
show where lime hath been applied ; and deep fur- 
rows in the most unlikely spots, which intimated 
that it had been cultivated in former days by the 
Peghts, as popular tradition bore. There was also 
enough of stones to keep the ground warm, accord- 
ing to the creed of some farmers, and great abun- 
dance of springs to render it cool and sappy, according 
to the theory of others. It was in vain that, acting 
alternately on these opinions, poor Triptolemus en- 
deavoured to avail himself of the supposed capabili- 
ties of the soil. No kind of butter that might be 
churned could be made to stick upon his own bread, 
any more than on that of poor Tusser, whose Hun- 
dred Points of Good Husbandry, so useful to others 
of his day, were never to himself worth as many 
pennies. ^ 

In fact, excepting an hundred acres of infield, to 
which old Jasper had early seen the necessity of lim- 

1 This is admitted by the English agriculturist: — 

“ My music since has been the plough. 

Entangled with some care among ; 

The gain not great, the pain enough. 

Hath made me sing another song." 


THE PIRATE. 


55 


iting his labours, there was not a corner of the farm 
fit for any thing but to break plough-graith, and kill 
cattle. And then, as for the part which was really 
tilled with some profit, the expense of the farming 
establishment of Triptolemus, and his disposition to 
experiment, soon got rid of any good arising from 
the cultivation of it. “ The carles and the cart- 
avers,” he confessed, with a sigh, speaking of his 
farm-servants and horses, “ make it all, and the carles 
and cart-avers eat it all ; ” a conclusion which might 
sum up the year-book of many a gentleman farmer. 

Matters would have soon been brought to a close 
with Triptolemus in the present day. He would 
have got a bank-credit, manoeuvred with wind-bills, 
dashed out upon a large scale, and soon have seen his 
crop and stock sequestered by the Sheriff ; but in those 
days a man could not ruin himself so easily. The 
whole Scottish tenantry stood upon the same level 
flat of poverty, so that it was extremely difficult to 
find any vantage ground, by climbing up to which a 
man might have an opportunity of actually breaking 
his neck with some eclat. They were pretty much 
in the situation of people, who, being totally without 
credit, may indeed suffer from indigence, but cannot 
possibly become bankrupt. Besides, notwithstand- 
ing the failure of Triptolemus’s projects, there was 
to be balanced against the expenditure which they oc- 
casioned, all the savings which the extreme economy 
of his sister Barbara could effect ; and in truth her 
exertions were wonderful. She might have realized, 
if any one could, the idea of the learned philosopher, 
who pronounced that sleeping was a fancy, and eat- 
ing but a habit, and who appeared to the world to 
have renounced both, until it was unhappily dis- 
covered that he had an intrigue with the cook-maid 


56 


THE PIRATE. 


of the family, who indemnified him for his privations 
by giving him private entree to the pantry, and to a 
share of her own couch. But no such deceptions 
were practised by Barbara Yellowley. She was up 
early, and down late, and seemed, to her over-watched 
and over-tasked maidens, to be as waherife as the 
cat herself. Then, for eating, it appeared that the 
air was a banquet to her, and she would fain have 
made it so to her retinue. Her brother, who, besides 
being lazy in his person, was somewhat luxurious in 
his appetite, would willingly now and then have 
tasted a mouthful of animal food, were it but to 
know how his sheep were fed off ; but a proposal to 
eat a child could not have startled Mistress Barbara 
more ; and, being of a compliant and easy disposition, 
Triptolemus reconciled himself to the necessity of a 
perpetual Lent, too happy when he could get a scrap 
of butter to his oaten cake, or (as they lived on the 
banks of the Esk) escape the daily necessity of eat- 
ing salmon, whether in or out of season, six days out 
of the seven. 

But although Mrs. Barbara brought faithfully to 
the joint stock all savings which her awful powers 
of economy accomplished to scrape together, and 
although the dower of their mother was by degrees 
expended, or nearly so, in aiding them upon extreme 
occasions, the term at length approached when it 
seemed impossible that they could sustain the con- 
flict any longer against the evil star of Triptolemus, 
as he called it himself, or the natural result of his 
absurd speculations, as it was termed by others. 
Luckily at this sad crisis, a god jumped down to 
their relief out of a machine. In plain English, the 
noble lord, who owned their farm, arrived at his man- 
sion-house in their neighbourhood, with his coach 


THE PIRATE. 


57 


and six and his running footmen, in the full splen- 
dour of the seventeenth century. 

This person of quality was the son of the noble- 
man who had brought the ancient Jasper into the 
country from Yorkshire, and he was, like his father, 
a fanciful and scheming man.^ He had schemed 
well for himself, however, amid the mutations of 
the time, having obtained, for a certain period of 
years, the administration of the remote islands of Ork- 
ney and Zetland, for payment of a certain rent, 
with the right of making the most of whatever was 
the property or revenue of the crown in these dis- 
tricts, under the title of Lord Chamberlain. Now, 
his lordship had become possessed with a notion, in 
itself a very true one, that much might be done to 
render this grant available, by improving the cul- 
ture of the crown lands, both in Orkney and Zet- 
land ; and then having some acquaintance with our 
friend Triptolemus, he thought (rather less happily) 
that he might prove a person capable of furthering 
his schemes. He sent for him to the great Hall- 
house, and was so much edified by the way in which 
our friend laid down the law upon every given sub- 
ject relating to rural economy, that he lost no time 
in securing the co-operation of so valuable an assist- 
ant, the first step being to release him from his 
present unprofitable farm. 

The terms were arranged much to the mind of 
Triptolemus, who had already been taught, by many 

1 Government of Zetland. — At the period supposed, the 
Earls of Morton held the islands of Orkney and Zetland, originally 
granted in 1643, confirmed in 1707, and rendered absolute in 1742. 
This gave the family much property and infiuence, which they 
usually exercised by factors, named chamberlains. In 1766 this 
property w^as sold by the then Earl of Morton to Sir Lawrence 
Dundas, by whose son, Lord Dundas, it is now held. 


THE PIRATE. 


58 

years’ experience, a dark sort of notion, that with- 
out undervaluing or doubting for a moment his own 
skill, it would be quite as well that almost all the 
trouble and risk should be at the expense of his 
employer. Indeed, the hopes of advantage which 
he held out to his patron were so considerable, that 
the Lord Chamberlain dropped every idea of ad- 
mitting his dependent into any share of the expected 
profits ; for, rude as the arts of agriculture were 
in Scotland, they were far superior to those known 
and practised in the regions of Thule, and Tripto- 
lemus Yellowley conceived himself to be possessed 
of a degree of insight into these mysteries, far su- 
perior to what was possessed or practised even in 
the Mearns. The improvement, therefore, which 
was to be expected, would bear a double propor- 
tion, and the Lord Chamberlain was to reap all the 
profit, deducting a handsome salary for his steward 
Yellowley, together with the accommodation of a 
house and domestic farm, for the support of his 
family. Joy seized the heart of Mistress Barbara, 
at hearing this happy termination of what threat- 
ened to be so very bad an affair as the lease of 
Cauldacres. 

“ If we cannot,” she said, “ provide for our own 
house, when all is coming in, and nothing going 
out, surely we must be worse than infidels ! ” 

Triptolemus was a busy man for some time, huff- 
ing and puffing, and eating and drinking in every 
changehouse, while he ordered and collected toge- 
ther proper implements of agriculture, to’ be used 
by the natives of these devoted islands, whose des- 
tinies were menaced with this formidable change. 
Singular tools these would seem, if presented be- 
fore a modern agricultural society ; but every thing 


THE PIRATE. 


59 


is relative, nor could the heavy cartload of timber, 
called the old Scots plough, seem less strange to a 
Scottish farmer of this present day, than the cors- 
lets and casques of the soldiers of Cortes might 
seem to a regiment of our own army. Yet the 
latter conquered Mexico, and undoubtedly the for- 
mer would have been a splendid improvement on 
the state of agriculture in Thule. 

We have never been able to learn why Triptole- 
mus preferred fixing his residence in Zetland, to 
becoming an inhabitant of the Orkneys. Perhaps 
he thought the inhabitants of the latter Archipel- 
ago the more simple and docile of the two kin- 
dred tribes ; or perhaps he considered the situation 
of the house and farm he himself was to occupy, 
(which was indeed a tolerable one,) as preferable to 
that which he had it in his power to have obtained 
upon Pomona ( so the main island of the Orkneys 
is entitled). At Harfra, or, as it was sometimes 
called, Stourburgh, from the remains of a Pictish 
fort, which was almost close to the mansion-house, 
the factor settled himself, in the plenitude of his 
authority ; determined to honour the name he bore 
by his exertions, in precept and example, to civi- 
lize the Zetlanders, and improve their very confined 
knowledge in the primary arts of human life. 


CHAPTEE V. 


The wind blew keen frae north and east; 

It blew upon the floor. 

Quo’ our goodman to our goodwife, 

“ Get up and bar the door.” 

“ My hand is in my housewife-skep, 

Goodman, as ye may see ; 

If it shouldna be barr’d this hundred years, 

It’s no be barr’d for me ! ” 

Old Song. 

We can only hope that the gentle reader has not 
found the latter part of the last chapter extremely 
tedious ; but, at any rate, his impatience will scarce 
equal that of young Mordaunt Mertoun, who, while 
the lightning came flash after flash, while the wind, 
veering and shifting from point to point, blew with 
all the fury of a hurricane, and while the rain was 
dashed against him in deluges, stood hammering, 
calling, and roaring at the door of the old Place of 
Harfra, impatient for admittance, and at a loss to 
conceive any position of existing circumstances, 
which c’.ould occasion the exclusion of a stranger, 
especially during such horrible weather. At length, 
finding his noise and vociferation were equally in 
vain, he fell back so far from the front of the house, 
as was necessary to enable him to reconnoitre the 
chiihneys ; and amidst “ storm and shade,” could 
discover, to the increase of his dismay, that though 
noon, then the dinner hour of these islands, was 


THE PIRATE. 


6i 


now nearly arrived, there was no smoke proceeding 
from the tunnels of the vents to give any note of 
preparation within. 

Mordaunt’s wrathful impatience was now changed 
into sympathy and alarm ; for, so long accustomed 
to the exuberant hospitality of the Zetland islands, 
he was immediately induced to suppose some 
strange and unaccountable disaster had befallen 
the family ; and forthwith set himself to dis- 
cover some place at which he could make forcible 
entry, in order to ascertain the situation of the in- 
mates, as much as to obtain shelter from the still 
increasing storm. His present anxiety was, how- 
ever, as much thrown away as his late clamorous 
importunities for admittance had been. Triptole- 
mus and his sister had heard the whole alarm with- 
out, and had already had a sharp dispute on the 
propriety of opening the door. 

Mrs. Baby, as we have described her, was no will- 
ing renderer of the rites of hospitality. In their 
farm of Cauldacres, in the Mearns, she had been 
the dread and abhorrence of all gaberlunzie men, 
and travelling packmen, gipsies, long remembered 
beggars, and so forth ; nor was there onp of them 
so wily, as she used to boast, as could ever say they 
had heard the clink of her sneck. In Zetland, 
where the new settlers were yet strangers to the 
extreme honesty and simplicity of all classes, sus- 
picion and fear joined with frugality in her desire 
to exclude all wandering guests of uncertain char- 
acter; and the second of these motives had its 
effect on Triptolenius himself, who, though neither 
suspicious nor penurious, knew good people were 
scarce, good farmers scarcer, and had a reasonable 
share of that wisdom which looks towards self- 


62 


THE PIRATE. 


preservation as the first law of nature. These 
hints may serve as a commentary on the following 
dialogue which took place betwixt the brother and 
sister. 

‘‘ Now, good be gracious to us,” said Triptole- 
mus, as he sat thumbing his old school-copy of 
Virgil, “ here is a pure day for the bear seed ! — 
Well spoke the wise Mantuan — ventis surgentihus 
— and then the groans of the mountains, and the 
long-resounding shores — hut where’s the woods. 
Baby ? tell me, I say, where we shall find the nemo- 
rum murmur, sister Baby, in these new seats of 
ours ? ” 

“ What’s your foolish will ? ” said Baby, popping 
her head from out of a dark recess in the kitchen, 
where she was busy about some nameless deed of 
housewifery. 

Her brother, who had addressed himself to her 
more from habit than intention, no sooner saw her 
bleak red nose, keen grey eyes, with the sharp 
features thereunto conforming, shaded by the flaps 
of the loose toy which depended on each side of her 
eager face, than he bethought himself that his 
query was likely to find little acceptation from her, 
and therefore stood another volley before he would 
resume the topic. 

“ I say, Mr. Yellowley,” said sister Baby, com- 
ing into the middle of the room, “ what for are ye 
crying- on me, and me in the 'midst of my 
housewifeskep ? ” 

“ Nay, for nothing at all. Baby,” answered 
Triptolemus, " saving that I was saying to myself, 
that here we had the sea, and the wind, and the 
rain, sufficient enough, but where’s the wood ? 
where’s the wood, Baby, answer me that ? ” 


THE TIEATE. 


63 


The wood ? ” replied Baby — “ Were I no to 
take better care of the wood than you, brother, there 
would soon be no more wood about the town than 
the barber’s block that’s on your own shoulders, 
•Triptolemus. If ye be thinking of the wreck-wood 
that the callants brought in yesterday, there was six 
ounces of it gaed to boil your parritch this morning ; 
though, I trow, a carefu’ man wad have ta’en dram- 
mock, if breakfast he behoved to have, rather than 
waste baith meltith and fuel in the same morning.” 

' “ That is to say. Baby,” replied Triptolemus, who 
was somewhat of a dry joker in his way, “that 
when we have fire we are not to have food, and when 
we have food we are not to have fire, these being 
too great blessings to enjoy both in the same day ! 
Good luck, you do not propose we should starve 
with cold and starve with hunger unico contextu. 
But, to tell you the truth, I could never away with 
raw oatmeal, sleekened with water, in all my life. 
Call it dram mock, or crowdie, or just what ye list, 
m-y vivers must thole fire and water.” 

“The mair gowk you,” said Baby; “can ye not 
make your brose on the Sunday, and sup them cauld 
on the Monday, since ye’re sae dainty ? Mony is 
the fairer face than yours that has licked the lip 
after such a cogfu’.” 

“ Mercy on us, sister ! ” said Triptolemus ; “ at 
this rate, it’s a finished field with me — I must unyoke 
the pleugh, and lie down to wait for the dead-thraw. 
Here is that in this house wad hold all Zetland in 
meal for a twelvemonth, and ye grudge a cogfu’ of 
warm parritch to me, that has sic a charge ! ” 

“ Whisht — baud your silly clavering tongue ! ” 
said Baby, looking round with apprehension — “ ye 
0,re a wise man to speak of what is in the house, and 


04 


THE PIRATE. 


a fitting man to have the charge of it ! — Hark, as 1 
live by bread, I hear a tapping at the outer yett ! ” 

“ Go and open it then. Baby,” said her brother, 
glad at any thing that promised to interrupt the 
dispute. 

“ Go and open it, said he ! ” echoed Baby, half 
angry, half frightened, and half triumphant at the 
superiority of her understanding over that of her 
brother — “ Go and open it, said he, indeed ! — is it 
to lend robbers a chance to take all that is in the 
house ? ” 

" Robbers ! ” echoed Triptolemus, in his turn ; 
there are no more robbers in this country than 
there are lamhs at Yule. I tell you, as I have told 
you an hundred times, there are no Highlandmen 
to harry us here. This is a land of quiet and hon- 
esty. 0 fortunati nimium ! ” 

“ And what good is Saint Rinian to do ye, Toli- 
mus ? ” said his sister, mistaking the quotation for 
a Catholic invocation. “ Besides, if there be no 
Highlandmen, there may be as bad. I saw sax or 
seven as ill-looking chields gang past the Place yes- 
terday, as ever came frae beyont Clochna-ben ; ill- 
fa’red tools they had in their hands, whaaling knives 
they ca’ed them, but they looked as like dirks and 
whingers as ae bit aim can look like anither. There 
is nae honest men carry siccan tools.” 

Here the knocking and shouts of Mordaunt were 
very audible betwixt every swell of the horrible 
blast which was careering without. The brother 
and sister looked at each other in real perplexity 
and fear. “If they have heard of the siller,’* said 
Baby, her very nose changing with terror from red 
to blue, “ we are but gane folk I ” 

“ Who speaks now, when they should hold their 


THE PIRATE. 


65 

tongue I'’ said Triptolernus. “ Go to the shot-window 
instantly, and see how many there are of them, 
while I load the old Spanish -barrelled duck -gun — 
go as if you were stepping on new-laid eggs.” 

Baby crept to the window, and reported that she 
saw only “ one young chield, clattering and roaring 
as gin he were daft. How many there might be 
out of sight, she could not say.” 

“ Out of sight ! — nonsense,” said Triptolernus, 
laying aside the ramrod with which he was loading 
the piece, with a trembling hand. “ I will warrant 
them out of sight and hearing both — this is some 
poor fellow catched in the tempest, wants the shel- 
ter of our roof, and a little refreshment. Open the 
door. Baby, it’s a Christian deed.” 

But is it a Christian deed of him to come in at 
'the window, then ? ” said Baby, setting up ' a most 
doleful shriek, as Mordaunt Mertoun, who had forced 
open one of the windows, leaped down into the 
apartment, dripping with water like a river god. 
Triptolernus, in great tribulation, presented the gun 
which he had not yet loaded, while the intruder 
exclaimed, “ Hold, hold — what the devil mean you 
by keeping your doors bolted in weather like this, 
and levelling your gun at folk’s heads as you would 
at a sealgh’s ? ” 

“ And who are you, friend, and what want you ?” 
said Triptolernus, lowering tlie but of his gun to 
the floor as he spoke, and so recovering his arms. 

“ What do I want ! ” said Mordaunt ; “ I want 
every thing — I want meat, drink, and fire, a bed 
for the night, and a sheltie for to-morrow morning 
to carry me to Jarlshof.” 

“ And ye said there were nae caterans or sorners 
here ? ” said Baby to the agriculturist, reproachfully. 

VOL. I. — 5 


66 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Heard ye ever a breekless loon frae Lochaber tell 
his mind and his errand mair deftly ? — Come, come 
friend,” she added, addressing herself to Mordaunt, 
“ put up your pipes and gang your gate ; this is the 
house of his lordship’s factor, and no place of reset 
for thiggers or sorners.” 

Mordaunt laughed in her face at the simplicity of 
the request. “ Leave built walls,” he said, and 
in such a tempest as this ? What take you me for ? 

— a gannet or a scart do you think I am, that your 
clapping your hands and skirling at me like a mad- 
woman, should drive me from the shelter into the 
storm ? ” 

“ And so you propose, young man,” said Triptol- 
emus, gravely, “ to stay in my house, volens nolens 

— that is, whether we will or no ? ” 

"‘Will!” said Mordaunt; “what right have you 
to will any thing about it ? Do you not hear the 
thunder ? Do you not hear the rain ? Do you not 
see the lightning ? And do you not know this is 
the only house within I wot not how many miles ? 
Come, my good master and dame, this may be 
Scottish jesting, but it sounds strange in Zetland 
ears. You have let out the fire, too, and my teeth 
are dancing a jig in my head with cold; but I’ll 
soon put that to rights.” 

He seized the fire-tongs, raked together the em- 
bers upon the hearth, broke up into life the gather- 
ing-peat, which the hostess had calculated should 
have preserved the seeds of fire, without giving them 
forth, for many hours ; then casting his eye round, 
saw in a corner the stock of drift-wood, which Mis- 
tress Baby had served forth by ounces, and trans- 
ferred two or three logs of it at once to the hearth, 
which, conscious of such unwonted supply, began ta 


THE PIRATE. 67 

transmit to the chimney such a smoke as had not 
issued from the Place of Harfra for many a day. 

While their uninvited guest was thus making him- 
self at home, Baby kept edging and jogging the 
factor to turn out the intruder. But for this under- 
taking, Triptolemus Yellowley felt neither courage 
nor zeal, nor did circumstances seem at all to war- 
rant the favourable conclusion of any fray into 
which he might enter with the young stranger. The 
sinewy limbs and graceful form of Mordaunt Mer- 
toun were seen to great advantage in his simple sea- 
dress ; and with his dark sparkling eye, finely formed 
head, animated features, close curled dark hair, and 
bold, free looks, the stranger formed a very strong 
contrast with the host on whom he had intruded 
himself. Triptolemus was a short, clumsy, duck- 
legged disciple of Ceres, whose bottle-nose, turned 
up and handsomely coppered at the extremity, 
seemed to intimate something of an occasional treaty 
with Bacchus. It was like to be no equal mellay 
betwixt persons of such unequal form and strength ; 
and the difference betwixt twenty and fifty years 
was nothing in favour of the weaker party. Besides, 
the factor was an honest good-natured fellow at 
bottom, and being soon satisfied that his guest had 
no other views than those of obtaining refuge from 
the storm, it would, despite his sister’s instigations, 
have been his last act to deny a boon so reasonable 
and necessary to a youth whose exterior was so 
prepossessing. He stood, therefore, considering 
how he could most gracefully glide into the 
character of the hospitable landlord, out of that 
of the churlish defender of his domestic castle, 
against an unauthorized intrusion, when Baby, 
who had stood appalled at the extreme familiarity 


68 . THE PIRATE. 

of the stranger’s address and demeanour, now spoke 
up for herself. 

“ My troth, lad,” said she to Mordaunt, “ ye are 
no blate, to light on at that rate, and the best of 
wood, too — nane of your sharney peats, but good 
aik timber, nae less maun serve ye ! ” 

“ You come lightly by it, dame,” said Mordaunt, 
carelessly ; and you should not grudge to the fire 
what the sea gives you for nothing. These good 
ribs of oak did their last duty upon earth and 
ocean, when they could hold no longer together 
under the brave hearts that manned the bark.’' 

“ And that’s true, too,” said the old woman, soft- 
ening — “this maun be awsome weather by sea. 
Sit down and warm ye, since the sticks are a-low.” 

“ Ay, ay,” said Triptolemus, “ it is a pleasure to 
see siccan a bonny bleeze. I havena seen the like 
o’t since I left Cauldacres.” 

“ And shallna see the like o’t again in a hurry,” 
said Baby, “ unless the house take fire, or there 
suld be a coal-heugh found out.” 

“ And wherefore should not there be a coal- 
heugh found out ? ” said the factor, triumphantly — 
“ I say, wherefore should not a coal-heugh be found 
out in Zetland as well as in Fife, now that the 
Chamberlain has a far-sighted and discreet man 
upon the spot to make the necessary perquisitions ? 
They are baith fishing-stations, I trow ? ” 

“ I tell you what it is, Tolemus Yellowley,” an- 
swered his sister, who had practical reasons to fear 
her brother’s opening upon any false scent, “ if you 
promise my Lord sae mony of these bonnie-wallies, 
weTl no be weel hafted here before we are found out 
and set a-trotting again. If ane was to speak to ye 
about a gold mine, I ken weel wha would promise 


THE PIRATE. 69 

he suld have Portugal pieces clinking in his pouch 
before the year gaed by.” 

“ And why suld I not ? ” said Triptolemus — 
“ maybe your head does not know there is a land in 
Orkney called Ophir, or something very like it ; 
and wherefore might not Solomon, the wise King of 
the Jews, have sent thither his ships and his ser- 
vants for four hundred and fifty talents ? I trow he 
knew best where to go or send, and I hope you 
believe in your Bible, Baby ? ” 

Baby was silenced by an appeal to Scripture, 
however mol a propos, and only answered by an in- 
articulate humph of incredulity or scorn, while her 
brother went on addressing Mordaunt. — Yes, you 
shall all of you see what a change shall coin intro- 
duce, even into such an unpropitious country as 
yours. Ye have not heard of copper, I warrant, 
nor of iron-stone, in these islands, neither ? ” Mor- 
daunt said he had heard there was copper near the 
Cliffs of Konigsburgh. “Ay, and a copper scum 
is found on the Loch of Swana, too, young man. 
But the youngest of you, doubtless, thinks himself 
a match for such as I am ! ” 

Baby, who during all this while had been closely 
and accurately reconnoitring the youth’s person, 
now interposed in a manner by her brother totally 
unexpected. “Ye had mair need, Mr. Yellowley, 
to give the young man some dry clothes, and to see 
about getting something for him to eat, than to sit 
there bleezing away with your lang tales, as if the 
weather were not windy enow without your help ; 
and maybe the lad would drink some blandy or sic- 
like, if ye had the grace to ask him.” 

While Triptolemus looked astonished at such a 
proposal, considering the (quarter it came from, Mor- 


70 


THE PIRATE. 


daunt answered, he “ should be very glad to have 
dry clothes, hut begged to be excused from drink- 
ing until he had eaten somewhat.” 

Triptolemus accordingly conducted him into an- 
other apartment, and accommodating him with a 
change of dress, left him to his arrangements, while 
he himself returned to the kitchen, much puzzled 
to account for his sister’s unusual fit of hospitality. 
“ She must he fey'' ^ he said, “ and in that case has 
not long to live, and though I fall heir to her tocher- 
good, I am sorry for it ; for she has held the house- 
gear well together — drawn the girth over tight it 
may he now and then, but the saddle sits the better.” 

When Triptolemus returned to the kitchen, he 
found his suspicions confirmed ; for his sister was 
in the desperate act of consigning to the pot a 
smoked goose, which, with others of the same tribe, 
had long hung in the large chimney, muttering to 
herself at the same time, — “It maun be eaten sune 
or syne, and what for no by the puir callant ? ” 

“ What is this of it, sister ? ” said Triptolemus. 
“ You have on the girdle and the pot at ance< What 
day is this wi’ you ? ” 

“ E’en such a day as the Israelites had beside the 
flesh-pots of Egypt, billie Triptolemus ; but ye little 
ken wha ye have in your bouse this blessed day.” 

“Troth, and little do I ken,” said Triptolemus, 
“ as little as I would ken the naig I never saw be- 
fore. I would take the lad for a jagger, ^ but he has 
rather ower good havings, and he has no pack.” 

1 When a person changes his condition suddenly, as when a 
miser becomes liberal, or a churl good-humoured, he is said, in 
Scotch, to be fey ; that is, predestined to speedy death, of which 
such mutations of humour are received as a sure indication, 

2 A pedlar, 


THE PIRATE. 


71 


Ye ken as little as ane of your ain bits o’ nowt, 
man,” retorted sister Baby ; “ if ye ken na him, do 
ye ken Tronda Dronsdaughter ? ” 

“ Tronda Dronsdaughter ! ” echoed Triptolemus 
— “ how should I but ken her, when I pay her twal 
pennies Scots by the day, for working in the house 
here ? I trow she works as if the things burned 
her fingers. I had better give a Scots lass a groat 
of English siller.” 

“ And that’s, the maist sensible word ye have said 
this blessed morning. — Weel, but Tronda kens this 
lad weel, and she has often spoke to me about him. 
They call his father the Silent Man of Sumburgh, 
and they say he’s uncanny.” 

“ Hout, hout — nonsense, nonsense — they are 
aye at sic trash as that,” said the brother, “ when 
you want a day’s wark out of them — they have 
stepped ower the tangs, or they have met an 
uncanny body, or they have turned about the boat 
against the sun, and then there’s nought to be done 
that day.” 

“ Weel, weel, brother, ye are so wise,” said Baby, 
“ because ye knapped Latin at Saint Andrews ; and 
can your lair tell me, then, what the lad has round 
his halse ? ” 

A Barcelona napkin, as wet as a dishclout, and 
I have just lent him one of my own overlays,” said 
Triptolemus. 

“ A Barcelona napkin ! ” said Baby, elevating her 
voice, and then suddenly lowering it, as from ap- 
prehension of being overheard — “I say a gold 
chain ! ” 

“ A gold chain ! ” said Triptolemus. 

“ In troth is it, hinny ; and how like you that ? 
The folk say here, as Tronda tells me, that the 


72 


THE PIRATE. 


King of the Drows gave it to his father, the Silent 
Man of Sumburgh.” 

“ I wish you would speak sense, or be the silent 
woman,” said Triptolemus. The upshot of it all 
is, then, that this lad is the rich stranger’s son, and 
that you are giving him the goose you were to keep 
till Michaelmas ! ” 

“ Troth, brother, we maun do something for 
God’s sake, and to make friends ; and the lad,” 
added Baby, (for even she was not altogether above 
the prejudices of her sex in favour of outward 
form,) “ the lad has a fair face of his ain.” 

“ Ye would have let mony a fair face,” said 
Triptolemus, “ pass the door pining, if it had not 
been for the gold chain.” 

“ Nae doubt, nae doubt,” replied Barbara ; ye 
wadna have me waste our substance on every thig- 
ger or sorner that has the luck to come by the door 
in a wet day ? But this lad has a fair and a wide 
name in the country, and Tronda says he is to be 
married to a daughter of the rich Udaller, Magnus 
Troil, and the marriage-day is to be fixed whenever 
he makes choice (set him up) between the twa 
lasses ; and so it wad be as much as our good name 
is worth, and our quiet forby, to let him sit unserved, 
although he does come unsent for.” 

“ The best reason in life,” said Triptolemus, “ for 
letting a man into a house is, that you dare not bid 
him go by. However, since there is a man of qual- 
ity amongst them, I will let him know whom he 
has to do with, in my person.” Then advancing to 
the door, he exclaimed, “ Heus tihi, Dam ! ” 

'' Adsum,'* answered the youth, entering the 
apartment. 

“ Hem ! ” said the erudite Triptolemus, “ not 


THE PIRATE. 


73 


altogether deficient in his humanities, I see. I will 
try him further. — Canst thou aught of husbandry, 
young gentleman ? ” 

“Troth, sir, not I,” answered Mordaunt; "I 
have been trained to plough upon the sea, and to 
reap upon the crag.” 

“ Plough the sea ! ” said Triptolemus ; “ that’s 
a furrow requires small harrowing; and for your 
harvest on the crag, I suppose you mean these 
scowries, or whatever you call them. It is a sort of 
ingathering which the Eanzelman should stop by 
the law; nothing more likely to break an honest 
man’s bones. I profess I cannot see the pleasure 
men propose by dangling in a rope’s-end betwixt 
earth and heaven. In my case, I had as lief the 
other end of the rope were fastened to the gibbet ; 
I should be sure of not falling, at least.” 

“Now, I would only advise you to try it,” re- 
plied Mordaunt. “ Trust me, the world has few 
grander sensations than when one is perched in mid- 
air between a high-browed cliff and a roaring ocean, 
the rope by which you are sustained seeming scarce 
stronger than a silken thread, and the stone on 
which you have one foot steadied, affording such a 
breadth as the kitty wake might rest upon — to feel 
and know all this, with the full confidence that 
your own agility of limb, and strength of head, can 
bring you as safe off as if you had the wing of the 
gosshawk — this is indeed being almost independent 
of the earth you tread on ! ” 

Triptolemus stared at this enthusiastic description 
of an amusement which had so few charms for him ; 
and his sister, looking at the glancing eye and elevated 
bearing of the young adventurer, answered, by ejacu 
lating, “ My certie, lad, but ye are a brave chield ! ” 


74 


THE HRATE. 


“ A brave chield ? ” returned Yellowley, — “I say 
a brave goose, to be flichtering and fleeing in the 
wind when he might abide upon terra firma ! But 
come, here’s a goose, that is more to the purpose, 
when once it is well boiled. Get us trenchers and 
salt. Baby — but in truth it will prove salt enough 
— a tasty morsel it is ; but I think the Zetlanders 
be the only folk in the world that think of running 
such risks to catch geese, and then boiling them 
when they have done.” 

“ To be sure,” replied his sister, (it was the only 
word they had agreed in that day,) ‘‘it would be 
an unco thing to bid ony gudewife in Angus or a’ 
the Mearns boil a goose, while there was sic things 
as spits in the warld. — But wha’s this neist ! ” she 
added, looking towards the entrance with great in- 
dignation. “ My certie, open doors, and dogs come 
in — and wha opened the door to him ? ” 

“ I did, to be sure,” replied Mordaunt ; “ you would 
not have a poor devil stand beating your deaf door- 
cheeks in weather like this ? — Here goes something, 
though, to help the fire,” he added, drawing out the 
sliding bar of oak with which the door had been 
secured, and throwing it on the hearth, whence it 
was snatched by Dame Baby in great wrath, she 
exclaiming at the same time, — 

“ It’s sea-borne timber, as there’s little else here, 
and he dings it about as if it were a fir-clog ! — And 
who be you, an it please you ? ” she added, turning 
to the stranger, — “a very hallanshaker loon, as 
ever crossed my twa een ! ” 

“ I am a jagger, if it like your ladyship,” replied 
the uninvited guest, a stout vulgar, little man, who 
had indeed the humble appearance of a pedlar, 
called jagger in these islands — “ never travelled in 


THE PIRATE. 


75 


a waur day, or was more willing to get to harbourage. 

— Heaven be praised for fire and house-room ! ” 

So saying, he drew a stool to the fire, and sat down 
without further ceremony. Dame Baby stared “ wild 
as grey gosshawk,” and was meditating how to ex- 
press her indignation in something warmer than 
words, for which the boiling pot seemed to offer a 
convenient hint, when an old half-starved serving- 
woman — the Tronda already mentioned — the sharer 
of Barbara’s domestic cares, who had been as yet in 
some remote corner of the mansion, now hobbled 
into the room, and broke out into exclamations 
which indicated some new cause of alarm. 

“ 0 master ! ” and “ 0 mistress I ” were the only 
sounds she could for some time articulate, and then 
followed them up with, “ The best in the house — 
the best in the house — set a’ on the board, and a’ 
will be little aneugh — There is auld Norna of Bitful- 
head, the most fearful woman in all the isles ! ” 

“ Where can she have been wandering ? ” said 
Mordaunt, not without some apparent sympathy 
with the surprise, if not with the alarm, of the old 
domestic ; “ but it is needless to ask — the worse the 
weather, the more likely is she to be a traveller.” 

“ What new tramper is this ? ” echoed the dis- 
tracted Baby, whom the quick succession of guests 
had driven wellnigh crazy with vexation. “I’ll 
soon settle her wandering, I sail warrant, if my 
brother has but the saul of a man in him, or if 
there be a pair of jougs at Scalloway ! ” 

“ The iron was never forged on stithy that would 
hauld her,” said the old maid-servant. “ She comes 

— she comes — God's sake speak her fair and 
canny, or we will have a ravelled hasp on the 
yarn-windles ! ” 


76 


THE fIRATE. 


As she spoke, a woman, tall enough almost to 
touch the top of the door with her cap, stepped into 
the room, signing the cross as she entered, and 
pronouncing, with a solemn voice, “ The blessing 
of God and Saint Ronald on the open door, and 
their broad malison and mine upon close-handed 
churls ! ” 

“And wha are ye, that are sae bauld wi’ youi 
blessing and banning in other folk’s houses ? Whal 
kind of country is this, that folk cannot sit quiet 
for an hour, and serve Heaven, and keep their bit 
gear thegither, without gangrel men and women 
coming thigging and sorning ane after another, like 
a string of wild-geese ? ” 

This speech, the understanding reader will easily 
saddle on Mistress Baby, and what effects it might 
have produced on the last stranger, can only be mat- 
ter of conjecture ; for the old servant and Mordaunt 
applied themselves at once to the party addressed, 
in order to deprecate her resentment; the former 
speaking to her some words of Norse, in a tone of 
intercession, and Mordaunt saying in English, “ They 
are strangers, Norna, and know not your name or 
qualities ; they are unacquainted, too, with the ways 
of this country, and therefore we must hold them 
excused for their lack of hospitality.” 

“ I lack no hospitality, young man,” said Triptole- 
mus, “ iniseris succurrere disco — the goose that was 
destined to roost in the chimney till Michaelmas, is 
boiling in the pot for you ; but if we had twenty 
geese, I see we are like to find mouths to eat them 
every feather — this must be amended.” 

“ What must be amended, sordid slave ? ” said the 
stranger Norna, turning at once upon him with an 
emphasis that made him start — “ What must be 


THE PIRATE. 


77 


amended ? Bring hither, if thou wilt, thy new- 
fangled coulters, spades, and harrows, alter the 
implements of our fathers from the ploughshare 
to the mouse-trap ; but know thou art in the land 
that was won of old by the flaxen-haired Kempions 
•of the North, and leave us their hospitality at least, 
to show we come of what was once noble and gen- 
erous. I say to you beware — while Norna looks 
forth at the measureless waters, from the crest of 
Fitful-head, something is yet left that resembles 
power of defence. If the men of Thule have 
ceased to be champions, and to spread the ban- 
quet for the raven, the women have not forgotten 
the arts that lifted them of yore into queens and 
prophetesses.” 

The woman who pronounced this singular tirade, 
was as striking in appearance as extravagantly lofty 
in her pretensions and in her language. She might 
well have represented on the stage, so far as features, 
voice, and stature, were concerned, the Bonduca or 
Boadicea of the Britons, or the sage Velleda, Au- 
rinia, or any other fated Pythoness, who ever led to 
battle a tribe of the ancient Goths. Her features 
were high and well formed, and would have been 
handsome, but for the ravages of time and the effects 
of exposure to the severe weather of her country. 
Age, and perhaps sorrow, had quenched, in some de- 
gree, the fire of a dark-blue eye, whose hue almost ap- 
proached to black, and had sprinkled snow on such 
parts of her tresses as had escaped from under her 
cap, and were dishevelled by the rigour of the storm. 
Her upper garment, which dropped with water, was 
of a coarse dark-coloured stuff, called wadmaal, then 
much used in the Zetland islands, as also in Iceland 
and Norway. But as she threw this cloak back from 


78 


THE PIRATE. 


her shoulders, a short jacket, of dark-blue velvet, 
stamped with figures, became visible, and the vest, 
which corresponded to it, was of crimson colour, and 
embroidered with tarnished silver. Her girdle was 
plated with silver ornaments, cut into the shape of 
planetary signs — her blue apron was embroidered 
with similar devices, and covered a petticoat of 
crimson cloth. Strong thick enduring shoes, of the 
half-dressed leather of the country, were tied with 
straps like those of the Roman buskins, over her 
scarlet stockings. She wore in her belt an ambigu- 
ous-looking weapon, which might pass for a sacri- 
ficing knife, or dagger, as the imagination of the 
spectator chose to assign to the wearer the character 
of a priestess or of a sorceress. In her hand she held 
a staff, squared on all sides, and engraved with Runic 
characters and figures, forming one of those portable 
and perpetual calendars which were used among 
the ancient natives of Scandinavia, and which, to a 
superstitious eye, might have passed for a divining 
rod. 

Such were the appearance, features, and attire, 
of Nornaof the Fitful-head, upon whom many of the 
inhabitants of the island looked with observance, 
many with fear, and almost all with a sort of vener- • 
ation. Less pregnant circumstances of suspicion 
would, in any other part of Scotland, have exposed 
her to the investigation of those cruel inquisitors, 
who were then often invested with the delegated 
authority of the Privy Council, for the purpose of 
persecuting, torturing, and finally consigning to the 
flames, those who were accused of witchcraft or sor- 
cery. But superstitions of this nature pass through 
two stages ere they become entirely obsolete. Those 
supposed to be possessed of supernatural powers, 


THE PIRATE. 


79 


are venerated in the earlier stages of society. As 
religion and knowledge increase, they are first held 
in hatred and horror, and are finally regarded as 
impostors. Scotland was in the second state — the 
fear of witchcraft was great, and the hatred against 
those suspected of it intense. Zetland was as yet 
a little world by itself, where, among the lower and 
ruder classes, so much of the ancient northern su- 
perstition remained, as cherished the original vener- 
ation for those affecting supernatural knowledge, 
and power over the elements, which made a con- 
stituent part of the ancient Scandinavian creed. At 
least if the natives of Thule admitted that one class 
of magicians performed their feats by their alliance 
with Satan, they devoutly believed that others dealt 
with spirits of a different and less odious class — the 
ancient Dwarfs, called, in Zetland, Trows, or Drows, 
the modern fairies, and so forth. 

Among those who were supposed to be in league 
with disembodied spirits, this Norna, descended 
from, and representative of, a family, which had long 
pretended to such gifts, was so eminent, that the 
name assigned to her, which signifies one of those 
fatal sisters who weave the web of human fate, had 
been conferred in honour of her supernatural powers. 
The name by which she had been actually christened 
was carefully concealed by herself and her parents ; 
for to its discovery they superstitiously annexed 
some fatal consequences. In those times, the doubt 
only occurred, whether her supposed powers were 
acquired by lawful means. In our days, it would 
have been questioned whether she was an impostor, 
or whether her imagination was so deeply impressed 
with the mysteries of her supposed art, that she 
might be in some degree a believer in her own 


8o 


THE PIRATE. 


pretensions to supernatural knowledge. Certain it 
is, that she performed her part with such undoubt- 
ing confidence, and such striking dignity of look 
and action, and evinced, at the same time, such 
strength of language, and energy of purpose, that 
it would have been difficult for the greatest sceptic 
to have doubted the reality of her enthusiasm, 
though he might smile at the pretensions to which 
it gave rise. 


CHAPTER VI. 


If, by your art, you have 

Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. 

Tempest, 


The storm had somewhat relaxed its rigour just 
before the entrance of Norna, otherwise she must 
have found it impossible to travel during the ex- 
tremity of its fury. But she had hardly added her- 
self so unexpectedly to the party whom chance had 
assembled at the dwelling of Triptolemus Yellow- 
ley, when the tempest suddenly resumed its former 
vehemence, and raged around the building with a 
fury which made the inmates insensible to any 
thing except the risk that the old mansion was 
about to fall above their heads. 

Mistress Baby gave vent to her fears in loud ex- 
clamations of “ The Lord guide us — this is surely 
the last day — what kind of a country of guisards 
and gyre-carlines is this ! — and you, ye fool carle,” 
she added, turning on her brother, (for all her pas- 
sions had a touch of acidity in them,) “to quit 
the bonny Mearns land to come here, where there 
is naething but sturdy beggars and gaberlunzies 
within ane’s house, and Heaven’s anger on the out- 
side on’t I ” 

“ I tell you, sister Baby,” answered the insulted agri- 
culturist, “ that all shall be reformed and amended, 

VOL. I. — 6 


82 


THE PIRATE. 


— excepting,” he added, betwixt his teeth, “the 
scaulding humours of an ill-natured jaud, that can 
add bitterness to the very storm ! ” 

The old domestic and the pedlar meanwhile 
exhausted themselves in entreaties to Norna, of 
which, as they were couched in the Norse language, 
the master of the house understood nothing. 

She listened to them with a haughty and un- 
moved air, and replied at length aloud, and in 
English — “I will not. What if this house be 
strewed in ruins before morning — where would 
be the world’s want in the crazed projector, and 
the niggardly pinch-commons, by which it is in- 
habited ? They will needs come to reform Zet- 
land customs, let them try how they like a Zetland 
storm. — You that would not perish, quit this 
house ! ” 

The pedlar seized on his little knapsack, and be- 
gan hastily to brace it on his back ; the old maid- 
servant cast her cloak about her shoulders, and 
both seemed to be in the act of leaving the house 
as fast as they could. 

Triptolemus Yellowley, somewhat commoved by 
these appearances, asked Mordaunt, with a voice 
which faltered with apprehension, whether he 
thought there was any, that is, so very much 
danger ? 

“ I cannot tell,” answered the youth, “ I have 
scarce ever seen such a storm. Norna can tell us 
better than any one when it will abate ; for no one 
in these islands can judge of the weather like 
her.” 

“ And is that all thou thinkest Norna can do ? ” 
said the sibyl ; “ thou shalt know her powers are 
not bounded within such a narrow space. Hear 


THE PIRATE. 


83 


me, Mordaunt, youth of a foreign land, but of a 
friendly heart — Dost thou quit this doomed man- 
sion with those who now prepare to leave it ? ” 

“ I do not — I will not, Norna,” replied Mor- 
daunt ; “ I know not your motive for desiring me 
to remove, and I will not leave, upon these dark 
threats, the house in which I have been kindly re- 
ceived in such a tempest as this. If the owners 
are unaccustomed to our practice of unlimited hos- 
pitality, I am the more obliged to them that they 
have relaxed their usages, and opened their doors 
in my behalf.” 

" He is a brave lad,” said Mistress Baby, whose 
superstitious feelings had been daunted by the 
threats of the supposed sorceress, and who, amidst 
her eager, narrow, and repining disposition, had, 
like all who possess marked character, some sparks 
of higher feeling, which made her sympathize with 
generous sentiments, though she thought it too ex- 
pensive to entertain them at her own cost — “ He 
is a brave lad,” she again repeated, “ and worthy 
of ten geese, if I had them to boil for him, or 
roast either. I’ll warrant him a gentleman’s son, 
and no churl’s blood.” 

“ Hear me, yodng Mordaunt,” said Horna, “ and 
depart from this house. Fate has high views on 
you — you shall not remain in this hovel to be 
crushed amid its worthless ruins, with the relics of 
its more worthless inhabitants, whose life is as little 
to the world as the vegetation of the house-leek, 
which now grows on their thatch, and which shall 
soon be crushed amongst their mangled limbs.” 

“I — I — I will go forth,” said Yellowley, who, 
despite of his bearing himself scholarly and wisely, 
was beginning to be terrified for the issue of the 


84 


THE PIRATE. 


adventure ; for the house was old, and the walls 
rocked formidably to the blast. 

“ To what purpose ? ” said his sister. I trust 
the Prince of the power of the air has not yet such- 
like power over those that are made in God’s image, 
that a good house should fall about our heads, be- 
cause a randy quean” (here she darted a fierce 
glance at the Pythoness) “should boast us with 
her glamour, as if we were sae mony dogs to 
crouch at her bidding ! ” 

“ I was only wanting,” said Triptolemus, ashamed 
of his motion, “to look at the bear-braird,' which 
must he sair laid wi’ this tempest ; but if this hon- 
est woman like to hide wi’ us, I think it were best 
to let us a’ sit doun canny thegither, till it’s work- 
ing weather again.” 

“Honest woman!” echoed Baby — “Foul war- 
lock thief ! — Aroint ye, ye limmer ! ” she added, 
addressing Norna directly ; “ out of an honest house, 
or, shame fa’ me, but I’ll take the bittle ^ to you ! ” 

Norna cast on her a look of supreme contempt ; 
then, stepping to the window, seemed engaged in 
deep contemplation of the heavens, while the old 
maid-servant, Tronda, drawing close to her mis- 
tress, implored, for the sake of all that was dear 
to man or woman, “ Do not provoke Norna of Fit- 
ful-head I You have no sic woman on the mainland 
of Scotland — she can ride on one of these clouds 
as easily as man ever rode on a sheltie.” 

“ I shall live to see her ride on the reek of a fat 
tar-barrel,” said Mistress Baby ; “ and that will be a 
fit pacing palfrey for her.” 

^ The beetle with which the Scottish housewives used to per- 
form the office of the modern mangle, by beating newly-washed 
linen on a smooth stone for the purpose, called the l)eetling-stone. 


THE PIRATE. 


8S 

Again Norna regarded the enraged Mrs. Baby 
Yellowley with a look of that unutterable scorn 
which her haughty features could so well ex- 
press, and moving to the window which looked 
to the north-west, from which quarter the gale 
seemed at present to blow, she stood for some 
time with her arms crossed, looking out upon 
the leaden-coloured sky, obscured as it was by 
the thick drift, which, coming on in successive 
gusts of tempest, left ever and anon sad and dreary 
intervals of expectation betwixt the dying and the 
reviving blast. 

Norna regarded this war of the elements as one 
to whom their strife was familiar; yet the stern 
serenity of her features had in it a cast of awe, and 
at the same time of authority, as the cabalist may 
be supposed to look upon the spirit he has evoked, 
and which, though he knows how to subject him to 
his spell, bears still an aspect appalling to flesh and 
blood. The attendants stood by in different atti- 
tudes, expressive of their various feelings. Mor- 
daunt, though not indifferent to the risk in which 
they stood, was more curious than alarmed. He 
had heard of Noma’s alleged power over the ele- 
ments, and now expected an opportunity of judging 
for himself of its reality. Triptolemus Yellowley 
was confounded at what seemed to be far beyond 
the bounds of his philosophy ; and, if the truth must 
be spoken, the worthy agriculturist was greatly 
more frightened .than inquisitive. His sister was 
not in the least curious on the subject ; but it was 
difficult to say whether anger or fear predominated 
in her sharp eyes and thin compressed lips. The 
pedlar and old Tronda, confident that the house 
would never fall while the redoubted Norna was 


86 


THE PIRATE. 


beneath its roof, held themselves ready for a start 
the instant she should take her departure. 

Having looked on the sky for some time in a 
fixed attitude, and with the most profound silence, 
Norna at once, yet with a slow and elevated ges- 
ture, extended her staff of black oak towards that 
part of the heavens from which the blast came 
hardest, and in the midst of its fury chanted a 
Norwegian invocation, still preserved in the Island 
of Uist, under the name of the Song of the Reim- 
kennar, though some call it the Song of the Tem- 
pest. The following is a free translation, it being 
impossible to render literally many of the elliptical 
and metaphorical terms of expression, peculiar to 
the ancient Northern poetry : — 


1 . 

“ Stern eagle of the far north-west, 

Thou that bearest in thy grasp the thunderbolt, 

Thou whose rushing pinions stir ocean to madness, 

Thou the destroyer of herds, 'thou the scatterer of navies, 

Thou the breaker down of towers, 

Amidst the scream of thy rage, 

Amidst the rushing of thy onward wings. 

Though thy scream be loud as the cry of a perishing nation. 
Though the rushing of thy wings be like the roar of ten thou- 
sand waves. 

Yet hear, in thine ire and thy haste, _ 

Hear thou the voice of the Reim-kennar. 


2 . 

“ Thou hast met the pine-trees of Drontheim, 

Their dark-green heads lie prostrate beside their uprooted stems; 
Thou hast met the rider of the ocean. 

The tall, the strong bark of the fearless rover. 

And she has struck to thee the topsail 
That she had not veiled to a royal armada; 


THE PIRATE. 87 

Thou hast met the tower that hears its crest among the clouds, 
The battled massive tower of the Jarl of former days, 

And the cope-stone of the turret 
Is lying upon its hospitable hearth; 

But thou too shalt stoop, proud compeller of clouds, 

AVhen thou hearest the voice of the Reim-kennar. 


3 . 

There are verses that can stop the stag in the forest, 

Ay, and when the dark-coloured dog is opening on his track; 
There are verses can make the wild hawk pause on the wing, 
Like the falcon that wears the hood and the jesses. 

And who knows the shrill whistle of the fowler. 

Thou who canst mock at the scream of the drowning mariner, 
And the crash of the ravaged forest, 

And the groan of the overwhelmed crowds, 

When the church hath fallen in the moment of prayer, 

There are sounds which thou also must list. 

When they are chanted by the voice of the Reim-kennar. 


4 . 

“ Enough of woe hast thou wrought on the ocean. 

The widows wring their hands on the beach; 

Enough of woe hast thou wrought on the land, 

The husbandman folds his arms in despair ; 

Cease thou the waving of thy pinions, 

Let the ocean repose in her dark strength ; 

Cease thou the flashing of thine eye. 

Let the thunderbolt sleep in the armoury of Odin; 

Be thou still at my bidding, viewless racer of the north-west- 
ern heaven, 

Sleep thou at the voice of Norna the Reim-kennar ! ” 

We have said that Mordaunt was naturally fond 
of romantic poetry and romantic situation ; it is not 
therefore surprising that he listened with interest to 
the wild address thus uttered to the wildest wind 
of the compass, in a tone of such dauntless enthu- 
siasm. But though he had heard so much of the 


THE PIRATE. 


88 

Runic rhyme and of the northern spell, in the coum 
try where he had so long dwelt he was not on this 
occasion so credulous as to believe that the tempest, 
which had raged so lately, and which was now be- 
ginning to decline, was subdued before the charmed 
verse of Norn a. Certain it was, that the blast 
seemed passing away, and the apprehended danger 
was already over ; but it was not improbable that 
this issue had been for some time foreseen by the 
Pythoness, through signs of the weather impercep- 
tible to those who had not dwelt long in the coun- 
try, or had not bestowed on the meteorological 
phenomena the attention of a strict and close ob- 
server. Of Noma’s experience he had no doubt, 
and that went a far way to explain what seemed 
supernatural in her demeanour. Yet still the noble 
countenance, half-shaded by dishevelled tresses, the 
air of majesty with which, in a tone of menace as 
well as of command, she addressed the viewless 
spirit of the tempest, gave him a strong inclination 
to believe in the ascendency of the occult arts over 
the powers of nature ; for, if a woman ever moved 
on earth to whom such authority over the ordinary 
laws of the universe could belong, Norna of Fitful- 
head, judging from bearing, figure, and face, was 
born to that high destiny. 

The rest of the company were less slow in re- 
ceiving conviction. To Tronda and the jagger none 
was necessary ; they had long believed in the full 
extent of Noma’s authority over the elements. 
But Triptolemus and his sister gazed at each other 
with wondering and alarmed looks, especially when 
the wind began perceptibly to decline, as was re- 
markably visible during the pauses which Norna 
made betwixt the strophes of her incantation. A 


THE EIRATE. 


89 

long silence followed the last verse, until Norna 
resumed her chant, but with a changed and more 
soothing modulation of voice and tune. 

“ Eagle of the far north-western waters, * 

Thou hast heard the voice of the Reim-kennar, 

Thou hast closed thy wide sails at her bidding, 

And folded them in peace by thy side. 

My blessing be on thy retiring path ! 

When thou stoopest from thy place on high, 

Soft be thy slumbers in the caverns of the unknown ocean, 
Rest till destiny shall again awaken thee ; 

Eagle of the north-west, thou hast heard the voice of the Reim- 
kennar I ” 

** A pretty sang that would be to keep the corn 
from shaking in har’st,” whispered the agricultu- 
rist to his sister ; “ we must speak her fair, Baby — 
she will maybe part with the secret for a hundred 
pund Scots.” 

“ An hundred fules’ heads ! ” replied Baby — “ bid 
her five merks of ready siller. I never knew a witch 
in my life but she was as poor as Job.” 

Norna turned towards them as if she had guessed 
their thoughts ; it may be that she did so. She 
passed them with a look of the most sovereign con- 
tempt, and walking to the table on which the prepa- 
rations for Mrs. Barbara’s frugal meal were already 
disposed, she filled a small wooden quaigh from an 
earthen pitcher which contained bland, a subacid 
liquor made out of the serous part of the milk. 
She broke a single morsel from a barley-cake, and 
having eaten and drunk, returned towards the 
churlish hosts. “ I give you no thanks,” she said, 
“for my. refreshment, for you bid me not welcome 
to it ; and thanks bestowed on a churl are like the 
dew of heaven on the cliffs of Foulah, where it 


THE PIRATE. 


90 

finds nought that can be refreshed by its influences. 
I give you no thanks,” she said again, but drawing 
from her pocket a leathern purse that seemed large 
and heavy, she added, “ I pay you with what you 
will value more than the gratitude of the whole 
inhabitants of Hialtland. Say not that Norna of 
Fitful-head hath eaten of your bread and drunk of 
your cup, and left you . sorrowing for the charge to 
which she hath put your house.” So saying, she 
laid on the table a small piece of antique gold coin, 
bearing the rude and half-defaced effigies of some 
ancient northern king. 

Triptolemus and his sister exclaimed against this 
liberality with vehemence ; the first protesting that 
he kept no public, and the other exclaiming, Is the 
carline mad ? Heard ye ever of ony of the gentle 
house of Clinkscale that gave meat for siller ? ” 

** Or for love either ? ” muttered her brother ; 
“baud to that, tittie.” 

“ What are ye whittie-whattieing about, ye 
gowk ? ” said his gentle sister, who suspected the 
tenor of his murmurs ; “ gie the ladie back her 
bonnie-die there, and be blithe to be sae rid on’t — 
it will be a sclate-stane the morn, if not something 
worse.” 

The honest factor lifted the money to return it, 
yet could not help being struck when he saw the 
impression, and his hand trembled as he handed it 
to his sister. 

“ Yes,” said the Pythoness again, as if she read 
the thoughts of the astonished pair, “you have 
seen that coin before — beware how you use it ! It 
thrives not with the sordid or the mean-souled 
— it was won with honourable danger, and must be 
expended with honourable liberality. The treasure 


THE PIRATE. 


91 


which lies under a cold hearth will one day, like 
the hidden talent, bear witness against its avari- 
cious possessors.” 

This last obscure intimation seemed to raise the 
alarm and the wonder of Mrs. Baby and her bro- 
ther to the uttermost. The latter tried to stam- 
mer out something like an invitation to Norna to 
tarry with them all night, or at least to take share 
of the “ dinner,” so he at first called it ; but look- 
ing at the company, and remembering the limited 
contents of the pot, he corrected the phrase, and 
hoped she would take some part of the “ snack, 
which would be on the table ere a man could loose 
a pleugh.” 

“ I eat not here — I sleep not here,” replied Norna 

— “ nay, I relieve you not only of my own pre- 
sence, but I will dismiss your unwelcome guests. 

— Mordaunt,” she added, addressing young Mer- 
toun, “ the dark fit is past, and your father looks for 
you this evening.” 

“Do you return in that direction ? ” said Mor- 
daunt. “ I will but eat a morsel, and give you my 
aid, good mother, on the road. The brooks must be 
out, and the journey perilous.” 

“ Our roads lie different,” answered the Sibyl, 
“and Norna needs not mortal arm to aid her on the 
way I am summoned far to the east, by those who 
know well how to smooth my passage. — For thee, 
Bryce Snailsfoot,” she continued, speaking to the 
pedlar, “ speed thee on to Sumburgh — the Roost 
will afford thee a gallant harvest, and worthy the 
gathering in. Much goodly ware will ere now be 
seeking a new owner, and the careful skipper will 
sleep still enough in the deep haaf, and care not 
that bale and chest are dashing against the shores.” 


92 


THE PIRATE. 


“Na, na, good mother,” answered Snailsfoot, “I 
desire no man’s life for my private advantage, and 
am just grateful for the blessing of Providence on 
my sma’ trade. But doubtless one man’s loss is 
another’s gain ; and as these storms destroy a’ thing 
on land, it is but fair they suld send us something 
by sea. Sae, taking the freedom, like yoursell, 
mother, to borrow a lump of bar ley -bread, and a 
draught of bland, I will bid good-day, and thank 
you, to this good gentleman and lady, and e’en go on 
my way to Jarlshof, as you advise.” 

“ Ay,” replied the Pythoness, “ where the slaugh- 
ter is, the eagles will be gathered ; and where 
the wreck is on the s^hore, the jagger is as busy 
to purchase spoil as the shark to gorge upon the 
dead.” 

This rebuke, if it was intended for such, seemed 
above the comprehension of the travelling mer- 
chant, who, bent upon gain, assumed the knapsack 
and ellwand, and asked Mordaunt, with the fami- 
liarity permitted in a wild country, whether he 
would not take company along with him ? 

“ I wait to eat some dinner with Mr. Yellowley 
and Mrs. Baby,” answered the youth, “ and will set 
forward in half an hour.” 

“ Then I’ll just take my piece in my hand,” said 
the pedlar. Accordingly he muttered a benediction, 
and, without more ceremony, helped himself to 
what, in Mrs. Baby’s covetous eyes, appeared to he 
two-thirds of the bread, took a long pull at the jug 
of bland, seized on a handful of the small fish 
called sillocks, which the domestic was just placing 
on the board, and left the room without farther 
ceremony. 

‘‘ My certie,” said the despoiled Mrs. Baby, “ there 


THE PIRATE. 


92i 

is the chapman’s drouth ^ and his hunger haith, as 
folk say ! If the laws against vagrants he executed 
this gate — It’s no that I wad shut the door against 
decent folk,” she said, looking to Mordaunt, “ more 
especially in such judgment-weather. But I see the 
goose is dished, poor thing.” 

This she spoke in a tone of affection for the 
smoked goose, which, though it had long been an 
inanimate inhabitant of her chimney, was far more 
interesting to Mrs. Baby in that state, than when 
it screamed amongst the clouds. Mordaunt laughed 
and took his seat, then turned to look for Norna ; 
but she had glided from the apartment during the 
discussion with the pedlar. 

“ I am glad she is gane, the dour carline,” said 
Mrs. Baby, “ though she has left that piece of gowd 
to be an everlasting shame to us.” 

“ Whisht, mistress, for the love of heaven ! ” said 
Tronda Dronsdaughter ; “ wha kens where she may 
be this moment ? — we are no sure but she may 
hear us, though we cannot see her.” 

Mistress Baby cast a startled eye around, and 
instantly recovering herself, for she was naturally 
courageous as well as violent, said, “ I bade her 
aroint before, and I bid her aroint again, whether 
she sees me or hears me, or whether she’s ower the 
cairn and awa. — And you, ye silly sumph,” she said 
to poor Yellowley, “what do ye stand glowering 
there for ? — You a Saunt Andrew’s student ! — you 
studied lair and Latin humanities, as ye ca’ them, 
and daunted wi’ the clavers of an auld randie wife ! 

1 The chapman’s drouth, that is, the pedlar’s thirst, is pro- 
verbial in Scotland, because these pedestrian traders were in the 
use of modestly asking only for a drink of water, when, in fact, 
they were desirous of food. 


94 


THE PIRATE. 


Say your best college grace, man, and witch, or nae 
witch, well eat our dinner, and defy her. And for 
the value of the gowden piece, it shall never be said 
I pouched her siller. I will gie it to some poor 
body — tha t is, I will test ^ upon it at my death, and 
keep it for a purse-penny till that day comes, and 
that’s no using it in the way of spending siller. Say 
your best college grace, man, and let us eat and 
drink in the meantime.” 

“ Ye had muckle better say an oraamus to Saint 
Ronald, and fling a saxpence ower your left shouther, 
master,” said Tronda. ^ 

“ That ye may pick it up, ye jaud,” said the im- 
placable Mistress Baby ; “ it will be lang or ye win 
the worth of it ony other gate. — Sit down, Trip- 
tolemus, and niindna the words of a daft wife.” 

“ Daft or wise,” replied Yellowley, very much dis- 
concerted, “ she kens more than I would wish she 
kend. It was awfu’ to see sic a wind fa’ at the voice 
of flesh and blood like oursells — and then yon 

about the hearth-stane — I cannot but think ” 

“ If ye cannot but think,” said Mrs. Baby, very 
sharply, at least ye can hand your tongue ? ” 

The agriculturist made no reply, but sate down to 
their scanty meal, and did the honours of it with 
unusual heartiness to his new guest, the first of the 
intruders who had arrived, and the last who left 
them. The sillocks speedily disappeared, and the 


1 Test upon it, i. e., leave it in my will ; a mode of bestowing 
charity, to which many are partial as well as the good dame in the 
text. 

2 Although the Zetlanders were early reconciled to the reformed 
faith, some ancient practices of Catholic superstition survived long 
among them. In very stormy weather a fisher would vow an oramus 
to Saint Ronald, and acquitted himself of the obligation by throw* 
ing a small piece of money in at the window of a ruinous chapel. 


THE PIRATE. 


95 


smoked goose, with its appendages, took wing so 
effectually, that Tronda, to whom the polishing of 
the bones had been destined, found the task accom- 
plished, or nearly so, to her hand. After dinner, 
the host produced his bottle of brandy ; but Mor- 
daunt, whose general habits were as abstinent al- 
most as those of his father, laid a very light tax upon 
this unusual exertion of hospitality. 

During the meal, they learned so much of young 
Mordaunt, and of his father, that even Baby resisted 
his wish to reassume his wet garments, and pressed 
him (at the risk of an expensive supper being added 
to the charges of the day) to tarry with them till the 
next morning. But what Norn a had said excited 
the youth’s wish to reach home, nor, however far 
the hospitality of Stourburgh was extended in his be- 
half, did the house present any particular tempta- 
tions to induce him to remain there longer. He 
therefore accepted the loan of the factor’s clothes, 
promising to return them, and send for his own ; and 
took a civil leave of his host and Mistress Baby, the 
latter of whom, however affected by the loss of her 
goose, could not but think the cost well bestowed 
(since it was to be expended at all) upon so hand- 
some and cheerful a youth. 


CHAPTER VII. 


She does no work by halves, yon raving ocean ; 
Engulfing those she strangles, her wild womb 
Affords the mariners whom she hath dealt on, 

Their death at once, and sepulchre. 

Old Play. 

There were ten “ lang Scots miles ” betwixt Stour- 
burgh and Jarlshof; and though the pedestrian did 
not number all the impediments which crossed Tam 
o’ Shanter’s path, — for in a country where there are 
neither hedges nor stone enclosures, there can be 
neither “ slaps nor stiles,” — yet the number and 
nature of the “ mosses and waters ” which he had to 
cross in his peregrination, was fully sufficient to bal- 
ance the account, and to render his journey as toil- 
some and dangerous as Tam o’ Shanter’s celebrated re- 
treat from Ayr. Neither witch nor warlock crossed 
Mordaunt’s path, however. The length of the day 
was already considerable, and he arrived safe at 
Jarlshof by eleven o’clock at night. All was still 
and dark round the mansion, and it was not till he 
had whistled twice or thrice beneath Swertha’s win- 
dow, that she replied to the signal. 

At the first sound, Swertha fell into an agreeable 
dream of a young whale-fisher, who some forty years 
before used to make such a signal beneath the win- 
dow of her hut ; at the second, she waked to remem- 
ber that Johnnie Fea had slept sound among the 
frozen waves of Greenland for this many a year, and 
that she was Mr. Mertoun’s governante at Jarlshof ; 
at the third, she arose and opened the window. 


THE PIRATE. 


97 

“ Whae is that,” she demanded, “ at sic an hour of 
the night ? ” 

" It is I,” said the youth. 

“ And what for comena ye in ? The door’s on the 
latch, and there is a gathering peat on the kitchen 
fire, and a spunk beside it — ye can light your ain 
candle.” 

“All well,” replied Mordaunt; “but I want to / 
know how my father is ? ” 

“Just in his ordinary, gude gentleman — asking 
for you, Maister Mordaunt; ye are ower far and 
ower late in your walks, young gentleman.” 

“ Then the dark hour has passed, Swertha ? ” 

“ In troth has it, Maister Mordaunt,” answered the 
governante ; “ and your father is very reasonably 
good-natured for him, poor gentleman. I spake to 
him twice yesterday without his speaking first ; and 
the first time he answered me as civil as you could 
do, and the neist time he bade me no plague ‘him; 
and then, thought I, three times were aye canny, so I 
spake to him again for luck’s-sake, and he called me 
a chattering old devil ; but it was quite and clean in 
a civil sort of way.” 

“Enough, enough, Swertha,” answered Mordaunt; 

“ and now get up, and find me something to eat, for 
I have dined but poorly.” 

“ Then you have been at the new folk’s at Stour- 
burgh ; for there is no another house in a’ the Isles 
but they wad hae gi’en ye the best share of the best 
they had. Saw ye aught of Norna of the Fitful- 
head ? She went to Stourburgh this morning, and 
returned to the town at night.” 

“ Returned ! — then she is here ? How could she 
travel three leagues and better in so short a time ? ” 

“Whakens how she travels?” replied Swertha; 

VOL. I. — 


THE HRATE. 


98 

“but I heard her tell the Ranzelman wi* my ain 
lugs, that she intended that day to have gone on 
to Burgh- Westra, to speak with Minna Troil, but 
she had seen that at Stourburgh, (indeed she said 
at Harfra, for she never calls it by the other name 
of Stourburgh,) that sent her back to our town. 
But gang your ways round, and ye shall have 
plenty of supper — ours is nae toom pantry, and 
still less a locked ane, though my master be a 
stranger, and no just that tight in the upper rigging, 
as the Ranzelman says.” 

Mordaunt walked round to the kitchen accord- 
ingly, where Swertha’s care speedily accommodated 
him with a plentiful, though coarse meal, which in- 
demnified him for the scanty hospitality he had 
experienced at Stourburgh. 

In the morning, some feelings of fatigue made 
young Mertoun later than usual in leaving his bed ; 
so that, contrary to what was the ordinary case, he 
found his father in the apartment where they eat, 
and which served them indeed for every common 
purpose, save that of a bedchamber or of a kitchen. 
The son greeted the father in mute reverence, and 
waited until he should address him. 

“ You were absent yesterday, Mordaunt ? said 
his father. Mordaunt’s absence had lasted a week 
and more ; but he had often observed that his father 
never seemed to notice how time passed during the 
period when he was affected with his sullen vapours. 
He assented to what the elder Mr. Mertoun had 
said. 

“And you were at Burgh-Westra, as I think?” 
continued his father. 

“ Yes, sir,” replied Mordaunt. 

The elder Mertoun was then silent for some time, 


THE PIRATE. 


99 


and paced the floor in deep silence, with an air of 
sombre reflection, which seemed as if he were about 
to relapse into his moody fit. Suddenly turning to 
his son, however, he observed, in the tone of a 
query, “ Magnus Troil has two daughters — they 
must be now young women ; they are thought 
handsome, of course ? ” 

“ Very generally, sir,” answered Mordaunt, rather 
surprised to hear his father making any enquiries 
about the individuals of a sex which he usually 
thought so light of, a surprise which was much 
increased by the next question, put as abruptly as 
the former. 

“Which think you the handsomest?” 

“ I, sir ? ” replied his son with some wonder, but 
without embarrassment — “I really am no judge — 
I never considered which was absolutely the hand- 
somest. They are both very pretty young women.” 

“You evade my question, Mordaunt; perhaps 
I have some very particular reason for my wish to 
be acquainted with your taste in this matter. I am 
not used to waste words for no purpose. I ask you 
again, which of Magnus TroiPs daughters you think 
most handsome ? ” 

“ Really, sir,” replied Mordaunt — “hut you only 
jest in asking me such a question.” 

“ Young man,” replied Mertoun, with eyes which 
began to roll and sparkle with impatience, “ I never 
jest. I desire an answer to my question.” 

“ Then, upon my word, sir,” said Mordaunt, “ it 
is not in my power to form a judgment betwixt the 
young ladies — they are both very pretty, but by 
no means like each other. Minna is dark-haired, 
and more grave than her sister — more serious, but 
by no means either dull or sullen.” 


i66 


THE f^IRATE. 


“ Um,” replied his father ; “ you have been gravely 
brought up, and this Minna, I suppose, pleases you 
most ? ” 

“No, sir, really I can give her no preference 
over her sister Brenda, who is as gay as a lamb in 
a spring morning — less tall than her sister, but so 
well formed, and so excellent a dancer ” 

“ That she is best qualified to amuse the young 
man, who has a dull home and a moody father ? ” 
said Mr. Mertoun. 

Nothing in his father’s conduct had ever surprised 
Mordaunt so much as the obstinacy with which he 
seemed to pursue a theme so foreign to his general 
train of thought, and habits of conversation ; but he 
contented himself with answering once more, “ that 
both the young ladies were highly admirable, but 
he had never thought of them with the wish to do 
either injustice, by ranking her lower than her sister 
— that others would probably decide between them, 
as they happened to be partial to a grave or a gay 
disposition, or to a dark or fair complexion ; but 
that he could see no excellent quality in the one 
that was not balanced by something equally capti- 
vating in the other.” 

It is possible that even the coolness with which 
Mordaunt made this explanation might not have 
satisfied his father concerning the subject of inves- 
tigation ; but Swertha at this moment entered with 
breakfast, and the youth, notwithstanding his late 
supper, engaged in that meal with an air which 
satisfied Mertoun that he held it matter of more 
grave importance than the conversation which they 
had just had, and that he had nothing more to say 
upon the subject explanatory of the answers he had 
already given. He shaded his brow with his hand, 


THE PIRATE. 


loi 


and looked long fixedly upon the young man as he 
was busied with his morning meal. There was 
neither abstraction nor a sense of being observed in 
any of his motions ; all was frank, natural, and open. 

“ He is fancy-free,” muttered Mertoun to himself 
— “ so young, so lively, and so imaginative, so hand- 
some and so attractive in face and person, strange, 
that at his age, and in his circumstances, he should 
have avoided the meshes which catch all the world 
beside ! ” 

When the breakfast was over, the elder Mertoun, 
instead of proposing, as usual, that his son, who 
awaited his commands, should betake himself to one 
branch or other of his studies, assumed his hat and 
staff, and desired that Mordaunt should accompany 
him to the top of the cliff, called Sumburgh-head, 
and from thence look out upon the state of the ocean, 
agitated as it must still be by the tempest of the 
preceding day. Mordaunt was at the age when 
young men willingly exchange sedentary pursuits 
for active exercise, and started up with alacrity to 
comply with his father’s desire ; and in the course 
of a few minutes they were mounting together the 
hill, which, ascending from the land side in a long, 
steep, and grassy slope, sinks at once from the 
summit to the sea in an abrupt and tremendous 
precipice. 

The day was delightful ; there was just so much 
motion in the air as to disturb the little fleecy clouds 
which were scattered on the horizon, and by float- 
ing them occasionally over the sun, to chequer the 
landscape with that variety of light and shade which 
often gives to a bare and unenclosed scene, for the 
time at least, a species of charm approaching to the 
varieties of a cultivated and planted country. A 


f02 


THE PIRATE. 


thousand flitting hues of light and shade played 
over the expanse of wild moor, rocks, and inlets, 
which, as they climbed higher and higher, spread 
in wide and wider circuit around them. 

The elder Mertoun often paused and looked round 
upon the scene, and for some time his son supposed 
that he halted to enjoy its beauties ; but as they 
ascended still higher up the hill, he remarked his 
shortened breath and his uncertain and toilsome step, 
and became assured, with some feelings of alarm, 
that his father’s strength was, for the moment, ex- 
hausted, and that he found the ascent more toilsome 
and fatiguing than usual. To draw close to his side, 
and offer him in silence the assistance of his arm, 
was an act of youthful deference to advanced age, 
as well as of filial reverence ; and Mertoun seemed 
at first so to receive it, for he took in silence the 
advantage of the aid thus afforded him. 

It was but for two or three minutes, however, that 
the father availed himself of his son’s support. They 
had not ascended fifty yards farther, ere he pushed 
Mordaunt suddenly, if not rudely, from him ; and, 
as if stung into exertion by some sudden recollec- 
tion, began to mount the acclivity with such long and 
quick steps, that Mordaunt, in his turn, was obliged 
to exert himself to keep pace with him. He knew 
his father’s peculiarity of disposition ; he was aware 
from many slight circumstances, that he loved him 
not even while he took much pains with his edu- 
cation, and while he seemed to be the sole object of 
his care upon earth. But the conviction had never 
been more strongly or more powerfully forced upon 
him than by the hasty churlishness with which Mer- 
toun rejected from a son that assistance, which most 
elderly men are willing to receive from youths with 


THE PIRATE. 


103 


whom they are hut slightly connected, as a tribute 
which it is alike graceful to yield and pleasing to 
receive. Mertoun, however, did not seem to per- 
ceive the effect which his unkindness had produced 
upon his son’s feelings. He paused upon a sort of 
level terrace which they had now attained, and 
addressed his son with an indifferent tone, which 
seemed in some degree affected. 

“ Since you have so few inducements, Mordaunt, 
to remain in these wild islands, I suppose you some- 
times wish to look a little more abroad into the 
world ? ’ 

“ By my word, sir,” replied Mordaunt, “ I can- 
not say I ever have a thought on such a subject.” 

“ And why not, young man ? ” demanded his 
father ; it were but natural, I think, at your age. 
At your age, the fair and varied breadth of Britain 
could not gratify me, much less the compass of a 
sea-girdled peat-moss.” 

“ I have never thought of leaving Zetland, sir,” 
replied the son. “ I am happy here, and have 
friends. You yourself, sir, would miss me, unless 
indeed ” 

“ Why, thou wouldst not persuade me,” said his 
father, somewhat hastily, “that you stay here, or 
desire to stay here, for the love of me ? ” 

“ Why should I not, sir ? ” answered Mordaunt, 
mildly ; “ it is my duty, and I hope I have hitherto 
performed it.” 

“ 0 ay,” repeated Mertoun, in the same tone — 
“ your duty — your duty. So it is the duty of the 
dog to follow the groom that feeds him.” 

“ And does he not do so, sir ? ” said Mordaunt. 

“ Ay,” said his father, turning his head aside ; 
” but he fawns only on those who caress him,” 


104 


THE PIRATE. 


“I hope, sir,*' replied Mordaunt, have not 
been found deficient ? ” 

“ Say no more on’t — say no more on’t,” said Mer- 
toun, abruptly, “ we have both done enough by each 
other — we must soon part — Let that be our com- 
fort — - if our separation should require comfort.” 

“ I shall be ready to obey your wishes,” said Mor- 
daunt, not altogether displeased at what promised 
him an opportunity of looking farther abroad into 
the world. “ I presume it will be your pleasure that 
I commence my travels with a season at the 
whale-fishing.” 

“ Whale-fishing ! ” replied Mertoun ; “ that were 
a mode indeed of seeing the world ! but thou speak- 
est but as thou hast learned. Enough of this for 
the present. Tell me where you had shelter from 
the storm yesterday ? ” 

“At Stourburgh, the house of the new factor 
from Scotland.” 

“A pedantic, fantastic, visionary schemer,” said 
Mertoun — “ and whom saw you there ? ” 

“ His sister, sir,” replied Mordaunt, “ and old 
Horna of the Fitful-head.” 

“ What ! the mistress of the potent spell,” an- 
swered Mertoun, with a sneer — “ she who can 
change the wind by pulling her curch on one side, 
as King Erick used to do by turning his cap ? The 
dame journeys far from home — how fares she ? 
Does she get rich by selling favourable winds to 
those who are port-bound ? ” ^ 

“ I really do not know, sir,” said Mordaunt, whom 
certain recollections prevented from freely enter- 
ing into his father’s humour. 

“ You think the .matter too serious to be jested 
^ Note III. — Sale of Winds. 


THE PIRATE. 


105 


with, or perhaps esteem her merchandise too light 
to be cared after,” continued Mertoun, in the same 
sarcastic tone, which was the nearest approach he 
ever made to cheerfulness ; “ but consider it more 
deeply. Every thing in the universe is bought and 
sold, and why not wind, if the merchant can find 
purchasers ? The earth is rented, from its surface 
down to its most central mines ; — the fire, and the 
means of feeding it, are currently bought and sold ; 
— the wretches that sweep the boisterous ocean 
with their nets, pay ransom for the privilege of 
being drowned in it. What title has the air to 
be exempted from the universal course of traffic ? 
All above the earth, under the earth, and around 
the earth, has its price, its sellers, and its purchasers. 
In many countries the priests will sell you a por- 
tion of heaven — • in all countries men are willing to 
buy, in exchange for health, wealth, and peace of 
conscience, a full allowance of hell. Why should 
not Norna pursue her traffic ? ” 

“ Nay, I know no reason against it,” replied 
Mordaunt ; “ only I wish she would part with the 
commodity in smaller quantities. Yesterday she 
was a wholesale dealer — whoever treated with her 
had too good a pennyworth.” 

“ It is even so,” said his father, pausing on the 
verge of the wild promontory which they had at- 
tained, where the huge precipice sinks abruptly 
down on the wide and tempestuous ocean, “ and 
the effects are still visible.” 

The face of that lofty cape is composed of the 
soft and crumbling stone called sand-flag, which 
gradually becomes decomposed, and yields to the 
action of the atmosphere, and is split into large 
masses, that hang loose upon the verge of the 


io6 


THE PIRATE. 


precipice, and, detached from it by the violence of 
the tempests, often descend with great fury into 
the vexed abyss which lashes the foot of the rock. 
Numbers of these huge fragments lie strewed be- 
neath the rocks from which they have fallen, and 
amongst these the tide foams and rages with a fury 
peculiar to those latitudes. 

At the period when Mertoun and his son looked 
from the verge of the precipice, the wide sea still 
heaved and swelled with the agitation of yester- 
day’s storm, which had been far too violent in its 
effects on the ocean to subside speedily. The tide 
therefore poured on the headland with a fury deaf- 
ening to the ear, and dizzying to the eye, threaten- 
ing instant destruction to whatever might be at the 
time involved in its current. The sight of Nature, 
in her magnificence, or in her beauty, or in her 
terrors, has at all times an overpowering interest, 
which even habit cannot greatly weaken ; and both 
father and son sat themselves down on the cliff to 
look out upon that unbounded war of waters, which 
rolled in their wrath to the foot of the precipice. 

At once Mordaunt, whose eyes were sharper, 
and probably his attention more alert, than that of 
his father, started up, and exclaimed, “ God in 
Heaven ! there is a vessel in the Roost ! ” 

Mertoun looked to the north-westward, and an 
object was visible amid the rolling tide. “ She 
shows no sail,” he observed ; and immediately 
added, after looking at the object through his 
spy -glass, “ She is dismasted, and lies a sheer hulk 
upon the water.” 

“And is drifting on the Sumburgh-head,” ex- 
claimed Mordaunt, struck with horror, “ without 
the slightest means of weathering the cape ! ” 


THE PIRATE. 


107 


“ She makes no effort,” answered his father ; 
“she is probably deserted by her crew.” 

“ And in such a day as yesterday,” replied Mor- 
daunt, “when no open boat could live were she 
manned with the best men ever handled an oar — 
all must have perished.” 

“ It is most probable,” said his father, with stern 
composure ; “ and one day, sooner or later, all must 
have perished. What signifies whether the fowler, 
whom nothing escapes, caught them up at one swoop 
from yonder shattered deck, or whether he clutched 
them individually, as chance gave them to his 
grasp ? What signifies it ? — the deck, the battle- 
field, are scarce more fatal to us than our table and 
our bed ; and we are saved from the one, merely to 
drag out a heartless, and wearisome existence, till 
we perish at the other. Would the hour were come 
— that hour which reason would teach us to wish ♦ 
for, were it not that nature has implanted the fear 
of it so strongly within us ! You wonder at such a 
reflection, because life is yet new to you. Ere you 
have attained my age, it will be the familiar com- 
panion of your thoughts.” 

“ Surely, sir,” replied Mordaunt, “ such distaste 
to life is not the necessary consequence of advanced 
age?” 

“ To all who have sense to estimate that which 
it is really worth,” said Mertoun. “ Those who, 
like Magnus Troil, possess so much of the animal 
impulses about them, as to derive pleasure from 
sensual gratification, may perhaps, like the animals, 
feel pleasure in mere existence.” 

Mordaunt liked neither the doctrine nor the 
example. He thought a man who discharged his 
duties towards others as well as the good old 


THE EIRATE. 


loS 

Udaller, had a better right to have the sun shine 
fair on his setting, than that which he might derive 
from mere insensibility. But he let the subject 
drop ; for to dispute with his father, had always 
the effect of irritating him ; and again he adverted 
to the condition of the wreck. 

The hulk, for it was little better, was now in the 
very midst of the current, and drifting at a great 
rate towards the foot of the precipice, upon whose 
verge they were placed. Yet it was a long while 
ere they had a distinct view of the object which 
they had at first seen as a black speck amongst the 
waters, and then, at a nearer distance, like a w^hale, 
which now scarce shows its back-fin above the waves, 
now throws to view its large black side. Now, 
however, they could more distinctly observe the 
appearance of the ship, for the huge swelling waves 
which bore her forward to the shore, heaved her 
alternately high upon the surface, and then plunged 
her into the trough or furrow of the sea. She seemed 
a vessel of two or three hundred tons, fitted up for 
defence, for they could see her port-holes. She 
had been dismasted probably in the gale of the pre- 
ceding day, and lay water-logged on the waves, a 
prey to their violence. It appeared certain, that the 
crew, finding themselves unable either to direct the 
vessel’s course, or - to relieve her by pumping, had 
taken to their boats, and left her to her fate. All 
apprehensions were therefore unnecessary, so far as 
the immediate loss of human lives was concerned ; 
and yet it was not without a feeling of breathless 
awe that Mordaunt and his father beheld the vessel 
— that rare masterpiece by which human genius 
aspires to surmount the waves, and contend with the 
winds, upon the point of falling a prey to them. 


THE PIRATE. 


109 


Onward she came, the large black hulk seeming 
larger at every fathom’s length. She came nearer, 
until she bestrode the summit of one tremendous 
billow, which rolled on with her unbroken, till the 
wave and its burden were precipitated against the 
rock, and then the triumph of the elements over 
the work of human hands was at once completed. 
One wave, we have said, made the wrecked vessel 
completely manifest in her whole bulk, as it raised 
her, and bore her onward against the face of the 
precipice. But when that wave receded from the 
foot of the rock, the ship had ceased to exist ; and 
the retiring billow only bore back a quantity of 
beams, planks, casks, and similar objects, which 
swept out to the offing, to be brought in again by 
the next wave, and again precipitated upon the 
face of the rock. 

It was at this moment that Mordaunt conceived 
he saw a man floating on a plank or water-cask, 
which, drifting away from the main current, seemed 
about to go ashore upon a small spot of sand, where 
the water was shallow, and the waves broke more 
smoothly. To see the danger, and to exclaim, He 
lives, and may yet be saved ! ” was the first impulse 
of the fearless Mordaunt. The next was, after one 
rapid glance at the front of the cliff, to precipitate 
himself — such seemed the rapidity of his move- 
ment — from the verge, and to commence, by means 
of slight Assures, projections, and crevices in the 
rock, a descent, which, to a spectator, appeared little 
else than an act of absolute insanity. 

“ Stop, I command you, rash boy ! ” said his 
father ; “ the attempt is death. Stop, and take the 
safer path to the left.” But Mordaunt was already 
completely engaged in his perilous enterprise. 


ilO 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Why should I prevent him ? ” said his father, 
checking his anxiety with the stern and unfeel- 
ing philosophy whose principles he had adopted. 
“ Should he die now, full of generous and high feel- 
ing, eager in the cause of humanity, happy in the 
exertion of his own conscious activity, and youth- 
ful strength — should he die now, will he not es- 
cape misanthropy, and remorse, and age, and the 
consciousness of decaying powers, both of body and 
mind ? — I will not look upon it however — I will 
not — I cannot behold his young light so suddenly 
quenched.” 

He turned from the precipice accordingly, and 
hastening to the left for more than a quarter of a 
mile, he proceeded towards a riva, or cleft in the 
rock, containing a path, called Erick’s Steps, neither 
safe, indeed, nor easy, but the only one by which 
the inhabitants of Jarlshof were wont, for any pur- 
pose, to seek access to the foot of the precipice. 

But long ere Mertoun had reached even the up- 
per end of the pass, his adventurous and active son 
had accomplished his more desperate enterprise. He 
had been in vain turned aside from the direct line 
of descent, by the intervention of difficulties which 
he had not seen from above — his route became 
only more circuitous, but could not be interrupted. 
More than once, large fragments to which he was 
about to intrust his weight, gave way before him, 
and thundered down into the tormented ocean ; and 
in one or two instances, such detached pieces of 
rock rushed after him, as if to bear him headlong 
in their course. A courageous heart, a steady eye, 
a tenacious hand, and a firm foot, carried him 
through his desperate attempt; and in the space 
of seven minutes, he stood at the bottom of the 


THE PIRATE. 


Ill 


cliff, from the verge of which he had achieved his 
perilous descent. 

The place which he now occupied was the small 
projecting spot of stones, sand, and gravel, that ex- 
tended a little way into the sea, which on the right 
hand lashed the very bottom of the precipice, and 
on the left, was scarce divided from it by a small 
wave-worn portion of beach that extended as far 
as the foot of the rent in the rocks called Erick’s 
Steps, by which Mordaunt’s father proposed to 
descend. 

When the vessel split and went to pieces, all was 
swallowed up in the ocean, which had, after the first 
shock, been seen to float upon the waves, excepting 
only a few pieces of wreck, casks, chests, and the 
like, which a strong eddy, formed by the reflux of 
the waves, had landed, or at least grounded, upon 
the shallow where Mordaunt now stood. Amongst 
these, his eager eye discovered the object that had 
at first engaged his attention, and which now, seen 
at nigher distance, proved to be in truth a man, and 
in a most precarious state. His arms were still wrapt 
with a close and convulsive grasp round the plank 
to which he had clung in the moment of the shock, 
but sense and the power of motion were fled ; and, 
from the situation in which the plank lay, partly 
grounded upon the beach, partly floating in the sea, 
there was every chance that it might be again 
washed off shore, in which case death was inevit- 
able. Just as he had made himself aware of these 
circumstances, Mordaunt beheld a huge wave ad- 
vancing, and hastened to interpose his aid ere it 
burst, aware that the reflux might probably sweep 
away the sufferer. 

He rushed into the surf, and fastened on the body, 


12 


THE PIRATE. 


with the same tenacity, though under a different 
impulse, with that wherewith the hound seizes his 
prey. The strength of the retiring wave proved even 
greater than he had expected, and it was not with- 
out a struggle for his own life, as well as for that 
of the stranger, that Mordaunt resisted being swept 
off with the receding billow, when, though an adroit 
swimmer, the strength of the tide must either have 
dashed him against the rocks, or hurried him out to 
sea. He stood his ground, however, and ere another 
such billow had returned, he drew up, upon the 
small slip of dry sand, both the body of the 
stranger, and the plank to which he continued 
firmly attached. But how to save and to recall the 
means of ebbing life and strength, and how to re- 
move into a place of greater safety the sufferer, who 
was incapable of giving any assistance towards his 
own preservation, were questions which Mordaunt 
asked himself eagerly, but in vain. 

He looked to the summit of the cliff on which he 
had left his father, and shouted to him for his as- 
sistance ; but his eye could not distinguish his form, 
and his voice was only answered by the scream of 
the sea-birds. He gazed again on the sufferer. A 
dress richly laced, according to the fashion of the 
times, fine linen, and rings upon his fingers, evinced 
he was a man of superior rank ; and his features 
showed youth and comeliness, notwithstanding they 
were pallid and disfigured. He still breathed, hut 
so feebly, that his respiration was almost impercep- 
tible, and life seemed to keep such slight hold of his 
frame, that there was every reason to fear it would 
become altogether extinguished, unless it were 
speedily reinforced. To loosen the handkerchief 
from his neck, to raise him with his face towards the 


THE PIRATE. 


113 

breeze, to support him with his arms, was all that 
Mordaunt could do for his assistance, whilst he anx- 
iously looked for some one who might lend his aid 
in dragging the unfortunate to a more safe situation. 

At this moment he beheld a man advancing 
slowly and cautiously along the beach. He was in 
hopes, at first, it was his father, but instantly recol- 
lected that he liad not had time to come round by 
the circuitous descent, to which he must necessarily 
have recourse, and besides, he saw that the man 
who approached him was shorter in stature. 

As he came nearer, Mordaunt was at no loss to 
recognise the pedlar whom the day before he had 
met with at Harfra, and who w^as known to him 
before upon many occasions. He shouted as loud 
as he could, “ Bryce, hollo ! Bryce, come hither ! ” 
But the merchant, intent upon picking up some of 
the spoils of the wreck, and upon dragging them 
out of reach of the tide, paid for some time little 
attention to his shouts. 

When he did at length approach Mordaunt, it 
was not to lend him his aid, but to remonstrate 
with him on his rashness in undertaking the chari- 
table office. “ Are you mad ? ” said he ; “ you that 
have lived sae lang in Zetland, to risk the saving of 
a drowning man ? Wot ye not, if you bring him to 
life again, he will be sure to do you some capital 
injury ? ^ — Come, Master Mordaunt, bear a hand to 
what’s mair to the purpose. Help me to get ane or 
twa of these kists ashore before any body else comes, 
and we shall share, like good Christians, what God 
sends us, and be thankful.” 

Mordaunt was indeed no stranger to this inhuman 
superstition, current at a former period among the 
1 Note IV. — Reluctance to Save Drowning Men. 

VOL. I. — 8 


114 


THE PIRATE. 


lower orders of the Zetlanders, and the more gener- 
ally adopted, perhaps, that it served as an apology 
for refusing assistance to the unfortunate victims of 
shipwreck, while they made plunder of their goods. 
At any rate, the opinion, that to save a drowning 
man was to run the risk of future injury from him, 
formed a strange contradiction in the character of 
these islanders ; who, hospitable, generous, and dis- 
interested, on all other occasions, were sometimes, 
nevertheless, induced by this superstition, to refuse 
their aid in those mortal emergencies, which were 
so common upon their rocky and stormy coasts. 
We are happy to add, that the exhortation and ex- 
ample of the proprietors have eradicated even the 
traces of this inhuman belief, of which there might 
be some observed within the memory of those now 
alive. It is strange that the minds of men should 
have ever been hardened towards those involved in 
a distress to which they themselves were so con- 
stantly exposed ; but perhaps the frequent sight and 
consciousness of such danger tends to blunt the 
feelings to its consequences, whether affecting our- 
selves or others. 

Bryce was remarkably tenacious of this ancient 
belief ; the more so, perhaps, that the mounting of 
his pack depended less upon the warehouses of Ler- 
wick or Kirkwall, than on the consequences of such 
a north-western gale as that of the day preceding ; 
for which (being a man who, in his own way, pro- 
fessed great devotion) he seldom failed to express 
his grateful thanks to Heaven. It was indeed said 
of him, that if he had spent the same time in assist- 
ing the wrecked seamen, which he had employed in 
rifling their bales and boxes, he would have saved 
many lives, and lost much linen. He paid no sort 


THE PIRATE. 


115 

of attention to the repeated entreaties of Mordaunt, 
although he was now upon the same slip of sand 
with him. It was well known to Bryce as a place 
on which the eddy was likely to land such spoils as 
the ocean disgorged ; and to improve the favourable 
moment, he occupied himself exclusively in securing 
and appropriating whatever seemed most portable 
and of greatest value. At length Mordaunt saw 
the honest pedlar fix his views upon a strong sea- 
chest, framed of some Indian wood, well secured by 
brass plates, and seeming to be of a foreign con- 
struction. The stout lock resisted all Bryce’s efforts 
to open it, until, with great composure, he plucked 
from his pocket a very neat hammer and chisel, and 
began forcing the hinges. 

Incensed beyond patience at his assurance, Mor- 
daunt caught up a wooden stretcher which lay near 
him, and laying his charge softly on the sand, ap- 
proached Bryce with a menacing gesture, and ex- 
claimed, “ You cold-blooded, inhuman rascal ! either 
get up instantly and lend me your assistance to 
recover this man, and bear him out of danger from 
the surf, or I will not only beat you to a mummy 
on the spot, but inform Magnus Troil of your thiev- 
ery, that he may have you flogged till your bones 
are bare, and then banish you from the Mainland ! ” 

The lid of the chest had just sprung open as this 
rough address saluted Bryce’s ears, and the inside 
presented a tempting view of wearing apparel for 
sea and land ; shirts, plain and with lace ruffles, a 
silver compass, a silver-hilted sword, and other valu- 
able articles, which the pedlar well knew to be such 
as stir in the trade. He was half-disposed to start 
up, draw the sword, which was a cut-and-thrust, 
and “ darraign battaile,” as Spenser says, rather than 


ii6 


THE PIRATE. 


quit his prize, or brook interruption. Being, though 
short, a stout square-made personage, and not much 
past the prime of life, having besides the better 
weapon, he might have given Mordaunt more trouble 
than his benevolent knight-errantry deserved. 

Already, as with vehemence he repeated his in- 
junctions that Bryce should forbear his plunder, and 
come to the assistance of the dying man, the pedlar 
retorted with a voice of defiance, “ Dinna swear, 
sir ; dinna swear, sir — I will endure no swearing in 
my presence ; and if you lay a finger on me, that 
am taking the lawful spoil of the Egyptians, I will 
give ye a lesson ye shall remember from this day 
to Yule!” 

Mordaunt would speedily have put the pedlar’s 
courage to the test, but a voice behind him suddenly 
said, “Forbear!” It was the voice of Norna of the 
Fitful-head, who, during the heat of their alterca- 
tion, had approached them unobserved. “ Forbear ! ” 
she repeated; “and, Bryce, do thou render Mor- 
daunt the assistance he requires. It shall avail 
thee more, and it is I who say the word, than all 
that you could earn to-day besides.” 

“ It is se’enteen hundred linen,” said the pedlar, 
giving a tweak to one of the shirts, in that know- 
ing manner with which matrons and judges as- 
certain the texture of the loom; — “it’s se’enteen 
hundred linen, and as strong as an it were dowlas. 
Nevertheless, mother, your bidding is to be done ; 
and I would have done Mr. Mordaunt’s bidding too,” 
he added, relaxing from his note of defiance into the 
deferential whining tone with which he cajoled his 
customers, “ if he hadna made use of profane oaths, 
which made my very flesh grew, and caused me, in 
some sort, to forget myself.” He then took a flask 


THE pirate. 


ti') 

from his pocket, and approached the shipwrecked 
man. “ It’s the best of brandy,” he said ; “ and if 
that doesna cure him, I ken nought that will.” So 
saying, he took a preliminary gulp himself, as if to 
show the quality of the liquor, and was about to 
put it to the man’s mouth, when, suddenly with- 
holding his hand, he looked at Norna — “You en- 
sure me against all risk of evil from him, if I am 
to render him my help? — Ye ken yoursell what 
folk say, mother.” 

For all other answer, Norna took the bottle from 
the pedlar’s hand, and began to chafe the temples 
and throat of the shipwrecked man ; directing Mor- 
daunt how to hold his head, so as to afford him the 
means of disgorging the sea-water which he had 
swallowed during his immersion. 

The pedlar looked on inactive for a moment, and 
then said, “ To be sure, there is not the same risk 
in helping him, now he is out of the water, and 
lying high and dry on the beach ; and, to he sure, . 
the principal danger is to those that first touch 
him ; and, to be sure, it is a world’s pity to see how 
these rings are pinching the puir creature’s swalled 
fingers — they make his hand as blue as a partan’s 
back before boiling.” So saying, he seized one of 
the man’s cold hands, which had just, by a tremu- 
lous motion, indicated the return of life, and began 
his charitable work of removing the rings, which 
seemed to be of some value. 

“As you love your life, forbear,” said Norna, 
sternly, “ or I will lay that on you which shall spoil 
your travels through the isles.” 

“ Now, for mercy’s sake, mother, say nae mair 
about it,” said the pedlar, “and I’ll e’en do your 
pleasure in your ain way ! I did feel a rheumatize 


ii8 


THE PIRATE. 


in my back-spauld yestreen ; and it wad be a sair 
thing for the like of me to be debarred my quiet 
walk round the country, in the way of trade — 
making the honest penny, and helping myself with 
what Providence sends on our coasts.” 

“ Peace, then,” said the woman — “ Peace, as thou 
wouldst not rue it; and take this man on thy 
broad shoulders. His life is of value, and you will 
be rewarded.” 

“ I had muckle need,” said the pedlar, pensively 
looking at the lidless chest, and the other matters 
which strewed the sand ; “ for he has come between 
me and- as muckle spreacherie as wad hae made a 
man of me for the rest of my life ; and now it maun 
lie here till the next tide sweep it a’ doun the Roost, 
after them that aught it yesterday morning.” 

“ Fear not,” said Norna, “ it will come to man’s 
use. See, there come carrion-crows, of scent as 
keen as thine own.” 

She spoke truly ; for several of the people from 
the hamlet of Jarlshof were now hastening along 
the beach, to have their share in the spoil. The 
pedlar beheld them approach with a deep groan. 
“ Ay, ay,” he said, “ the folk of Jarlshof, they will 
make clean wark ; they are kend for that far and 
wide; they winna leave the value of a rotten rat- 
lin ; and what’s waur, there isna ane o’ them has 
mense or sense eneugh to give thanks for the mer- 
cies when they have gotten them. There is the 
auld Ranzelman, Neil Ronaldson, that canna walk 
a mile to hear the minister, but he will hirple ten 
if he hears of a ship embayed.” 

Norna, however, seemed to possess over him so 
complete an ascendency, that he no longer hesitated 
to take the man, who now gave strong symptoms 


THE PIRATE. 


119 

of reviving existence, upon liis shoulders ; and, as- 
sisted by Mordaunt, trudged along the sea-beach 
with his burden, without farther remonstrance. 
Ere he was borne off, the stranger pointed to the 
chest, and attempted to mutter something, to 
which Norna replied, “Enough. It shall be 
secured.” 

Advancing towards the passage called Erick’s 
Steps, by which they were to ascend the cliffs, they 
met the people from Jarlshof hastening in the op- 
posite direction. Man and woman, as they passed, 
reverently made room for Norna, and saluted her 
— not without an expression of fear upon some of 
their faces. She passed them a few paces, and then 
turning back, called aloud to the Ranzelman, who 
(though the practice was more common than legal) 
was attending the rest of the hamlet upon this 
plundering expedition. “ Neil Ronaldson,” she said, 
“ mark my words. There stands yonder a chesk 
from which the lid has been just prized off. Look 
it be brought down to your own house at Jarlshof, 
just as it now is. Beware of moving or touching 
the slightest article. He were better in his grave 
that so much as looks at the contents. I speak not 
for nought, nor in aught will I be disobeyed.” 

“ Your pleasure shall be done, mother,” said Ron- 
aldson. “ I warrant we will not break bulk, since 
sic is your bidding.” 

Far behind the rest of the villagers, followed an 
old woman, talking to herself, and cursing her own 
decrepitude, which kept her the last of the party, 
yet pressing forward with all her might to get her 
share of the spoil. 

When they met her, Mordaunt was astonished 
to recognise his father’s old housekeeper. “How 


!2o PIRATE. 

now,” he said, “Swertha, what make you so far 
from home ? ” 

“ Just e’en daikering out to look after my auld 
master and your honour,” replied Swertha, who felt 
like a criminal caught in the manner ; for on more 
occasions than one, Mr. Mertoun had intimated his 
high disapprobation of such excursions as she was 
at present engaged in. 

But Mordaunt was too much engaged with his 
own thoughts to take much notice of her delin- 
quency. “ Have you seen my father ? ” he said. 

“ And that I have,” replied Swertha — “ The 
gude gentleman was ganging to hirsel himsell doun 
Erick’s Steps, whilk would have been the ending 
of him, that is in no way a cragsman. Sae I e’en 
gat him wiled away hame — and I was just seeking 
you that you may gang after him to the hall-house, 
for to my thought he is far frae week” 

“ My father unwell ? ” said Mordaunt, remember- 
ing the faintness he had exhibited at the commence- 
ment of that morning’s walk. 

‘^Far frae weel — far frae weel,” groaned out 
Swertha, with a piteous shake of the head — “ white 
o’ the- gills — white o’ the gills — and him to think 
of coming down the riva ! ” 

“ Return home, Mordaunt,” said Horna, who was 
listening to what had passed. “ I will see all that 
is necessary done for this man’s relief, and you will 
find him at the Ranzelman’s, when you list to en- 
quire. You cannot help him more than you already 
have done.” 

Mordaunt felt this was true, and, commanding 
Swertha to follow him instantly, betook himself to 
the path homeward. 

Swertha hobbled reluctantly after her young 


THE PIRATE. 


I2I 


master in the same direction, until she lost sight 
of him on his entering the cleft of the rock ; then 
instantly turned about, muttering to herself, “ Haste 
home, in good sooth ? — haste home, and lose the 
best chance of getting a new rokelay and owerlay 
that I have had these ten years ? by my certie, na 

— It’s seldom sic rich godsends come on our shore 

— no since the Jenny and James came ashore in 
King Charlie’s time.” 

So saying, she mended her pace as well as she 
could, and, a willing mind making amends for frail 
limbs, posted on with wonderful dispatch to put 
in for her share of the spoil. She soon reached 
the beach, where the Ranzelmah, stuffing his own 
pouches all the while, was exhorting the rest to part 
things fair, and be neighbourly, and to give to the auld 
and helpless a share of what was going, which, he 
charitably remarked, would bring a blessing on the 
shore, and send them “ mair wrecks ere winter.” ^ 


Note V. — Mair Wrecks ere Winter. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


He was a lovely youth, I guess ; 

The pauther in the wilderness 
Was not so fair as he ; 

And when he chose to sport and play, 

No dolphin ever was so gay, 

Upon the tropic sea. 

Wordsworth. 

The light foot of Mordaunt Mertoun was not long 
of bearing him to Jarlshof. He entered the house 
hastily, for what he himself had observed that 
morning, corresponded in some degree with the ideas 
which Swertha’s tale was calculated to excite. He 
found his father, however, in the inner apartment, 
reposing himself after his fatigue ; and his first ques- 
tion satisfied him that the good dame had practised 
a little imposition to get rid of them both. 

“Where is this dying man, whom you have so 
wisely ventured your own neck to relieve ? ” said 
the elder Mertoun to the younger. • 

“Norna, sir,” replied Mordaunt, “ has taken him 
under her charge ; she understands such matters.” 

“ And is quack as well as witch ? ” said the elder 
Mertoun. “ With all my heart — it is a trouble 
saved. But I hasted home, on Swertha’s hint, to 
look out for lint and bandages ; for her speech was 
of broken bones.” 

Mordaunt kept silence, well knowing his father 
would not persevere in his enquiries upon such a 


THE PIRATE. 


123 


matter, and not willing either to prejudice the old 
governante, or to excite his father to one of those 
excesses of passion into which he was apt to hurst, 
when, contrary to his wont, he thought proper to 
correct the conduct of his domestic. 

It was late in the day ere old Swertha returned 
from her expedition, heartily fatigued, and bearing 
with her a bundle of some bulk, containing, it would 
seem, her share of the spoil. Mordaunt instantly 
sought her out, to charge her with the deceits she 
had practised on both his father and himself ; but 
the accused matron lacked not her reply. 

“By her troth,” she said, “she thought it was 
time to bid Mr. Mertoun gang hame and get ban- 
dages, when she had seen, with her ain twa een, 
Mordaunt ganging down the cliff like a wild-cat — 
it was to be thought broken bones would be the 
end, and lucky if bandages wad do any good ; — 
and, by her troth, she might weel tell Mordaunt his 
father was puirly, and him looking sae white in the 
gills, (whilk, she wad die upon it, was the very 
word she used,) and it was a thing that couldna be 
denied by man at this very moment.” 

“ But, Swertha,” said Mordaunt, as soon as her 
clamorous defence gave him time to speak in reply, 
“ how came you, that should have been busy with 
your housewifery and your spinning, to be out this 
morning at Erick’s Steps, in order to take all this 
unnecessary care of my father and me ? — And what 
is in that bundle, Swertha ? for I fear, Swertha, you 
have been transgressing the law, and have been out 
upon the wrecking system.” 

“Fair fa’ your sonsy face, and the blessing of 
Saint Ronald upon you ! ” said Swertha, in a tone 
betwixt coaxing and jesting; “would you keep 9 


124 


THE PIRATE. 


puir body frae mending hersell, and sae muckle gear 
lying on the loose sand for the lifting ? — Hout, 
Maister Mordaunt, a ship ashore is a sight to wile 
the minister out of his very pu’pit in the middle of 
his preaching, muckle mair a puir auld ignorant 
wife frae her rock and her tow. And little did I get 
for my day’s wark — just some rags o’ cambric things, 
and a bit or twa of coorse claith, and sic like — the 
strong and the hearty get a’ thing in this warld.” 

“ Yes, Swertha,” replied Mordaunt, “ and that is 
rather hard, as you must have your share of punish- 
ment in this world and the next, for robbing the 
poor mariners.” 

“ Hout, callant, wha wad punish an auld wife like 
me for a wheen duds? — Folk speak muckle black 
ill of Earl Patrick ; but he was a f reend to the shore, 
and made wise laws against ony body helping ves- 
sels that were like to gang on the breakers. ^ — And 
the mariners, I have heard Bryce dagger say, lose 
their right frae the time keel touches sand ; and, 
moreover, they are dead and gane, poor souls — 
dead and gane, and care little about warld’s wealth 
now — Nay, nae mair than the great Jarls and Sea- 
kings, in the Norse days, did about the treasures 
that they buried in the tombs and sepulchres auld 
langsyne. Did I ever tell you the sang, Maister 
Mordaunt, how OIM Tryguarson garr’d hide five 
gold crowns in the same grave with him ? ” 

“No, Swertha,” said Mordaunt, who took pleas- 
ure in tormenting the cunning old plunderer — 
“ you never told me that ; but I tell you, that the 
stranger whom Norna has taken down to the town, 
will be well enough to-morrow, to ask where you 


^ This was literally true. 


THE PIRATE. 


125 


have hidden the goods that you have stolen from 
the wreck.” 

“ But wha will tell him a word about it, hinnie ?” 
said Swertha, looking slyly up in her young master’s 
face — “ The mair by token, since I maun tell ye, 
that I have a bonny remnant of silk amang the lave, 
that will make a dainty waistcoat to yoursell, the 
first merry-making ye gang to.” 

Mordaunt could no longer forbear laughing at the 
cunning with which the old dame proposed to bribe 
off his evidence by imparting a portion of her plun- 
der ; and, desiring her to get ready what provision 
she had made for dinner, he returned to his father, 
whom he found still sitting in the same place, and 
nearly in the same posture, in which he had left him. 

When their hasty and frugal meal was finished, 
Mordaunt announced to his father his purpose of 
going down to the town, or hamlet, to look after 
the shipwrecked sailor. 

The elder Mertoun assented with a nod. 

“ He must be ill accommodated there, sir,” added 
his son, — a hint which only produced another nod 
of assent. “ He seemed, from his appearance,” pur- 
sued Mordaunt, “ to be of very good rank — and 
admitting these poor people do their best to receive 
him, in his present weak state, yet ” 

“ I know what you would say,” said his father, 
interrupting him ; “ we, you think, ought to do some- 
thing towards assisting him. Go to him, then — if 
he lacks money, let him name the sum, and he shall 
have it ; but, for lodging the stranger here, and hold- 
ing intercourse with him, I neither can, nor will do 
so. I have retired to this farthest extremity of the 
British isles, to avoid new friends, and new faces, and 
none such shall intrude on me either their happiness 


126 


THE HRATE. 


or their misery. When you have known the world 
half a score of years longer, your early friends will 
have given you reason to remember them, and to 
avoid new ones for the rest of your life. Go then 

— why do you stop ? — rid the country of the man 

— let me see no one about me but those vulgar coun- 
tenances, the extent and character of whose petty 
knavery I know, and can submit to, as to an evil 
too trifling to cause irritation.” He then threw his 
purse to his son, and signed to him to depart with 
all speed. 

Mordaunt was not long before he reached the 
village. In the dark abode of Neil Ronaldson, the 
Ranzelman, he found the stranger seated by the peat- 
fire, upon the very chest which had excited the 
cupidity of the devout Bryce Snailsfoot, the ped- 
lar. The Ranzelman himself was absent, dividing, 
with all due impartiality, the spoils of the wrecked 
vessel amongst the natives of the community ; lis- 
tening to and redressing their complaints of in- 
equality ; and (if the matter in hand had not been, 
from beginning to end, utterly unjust and indefen- 
sible) discharging the part of a wise and prudent 
magistrate, in all the details. For at this time, and 
probably until a much later period, the lower orders 
of the islanders entertained an opinion, common to 
barbarians also in the same situation, that whatever 
was cast on their shores, became their indisputable 
property. 

Margery Bimbister, the worthy spouse of the 
Ranzelman, was in the charge of the house, and 
introduced Mordaunt to her guest, saying, with no 
great ceremony, “ This is the young tacksman — 
You will maybe tell him your name, though you 
will not tell it to us. If it had not been for hig 


THE PIllATE. 


127 


four quarters, it’s but little you would have said to 
any body, sae lang as life lasted.” 

The stranger arose, and shook Mordaunt by the 
hand; observing, he understood that he had been 
the means of saving his life and his chest. “ The 
rest of the property,” he said, “ is, I see, walking 
the plank for they are as busy as the devil in a 
gale of wind.” 

“ And what was the use of your seamanship, then,” 
said Margery, that you couldna keep off the 
Sumburgh-head ? It would have been lang ere 
Sumburgh-head had come to you.” 

“ Leave us for a moment, good Margery Bimbister,” 
said Mordaunt ; “ I wish to have some private 
conversation with this gentleman.” 

“Gentleman !” said Margery, with an emphasis; 
“ not but the man is well enough to look at,” she 
added, again surveying him, “ but I doubt if there 
is muckle of the gentleman about him.” 

Mordaunt looked at the stranger, and was of a 
different opinion. He was rather above the middle 
size, and formed handsomely as well as strongly. 
Mordaunt’s intercourse with society was not ex- 
tensive ; but he thought his new acquaintance, 
to a bold sunburnt handsome countenance, which 
seemed to have faced various climates, added the 
frank and open manners of a sailor. He answered 
cheerfully the enquiries which Mordaunt made 
after his health ; and maintained that one night’s 
rest would relieve him from all the effects of the 
disaster he had sustained. But he spoke with bitter- 
ness of the avarice and curiosity of the Ranzelman 
and his spouse. 

“ That chattering old woman,” said the stranger, 
" has persecuted me the whole day for the name of 


128 


THE PIRATE. 


the ship. I think she might be contented with the 
share she has had of it. I was the principal owner 
of the vessel that was lost yonder, and they have left 
me nothing but my wearing apparel. Is there no 
magistrate, or justice of the peace, in this wild coun- 
try, that would lend a hand to help one when he is 
among the breakers ? ” 

Mordaunt mentioned Magnus Troil, the principal 
proprietor, as well as the Fowd, or provincial judge, 
of the district, as the person from whom he was 
most likely to obtain redress ; and regretted that 
his own youth, and his father’s situation as a re- 
tired stranger, should put it out of their power to 
afford him the protection he required. 

“ Nay, for your part, you have done enough,” said 
the sailor ; “ but if I had five out of the forty brave 
fellows that are fishes’ food by this time, the devil 
a man would I ask to do me the right that I could 
do for myself ! ” 

“ Forty hands ! ” said Mordaunt ; “ you were well 
manned for the size of the ship.” 

“ Not so well as we needed to be. We mounted 
ten guns, besides chasers ; but our cruise on the 
main had thinned us of men, and lumbered us up 
with goods. Six of our guns were in ballast — 
Hands ! if I had had enough of hands, we would 
never have miscarried so infernally. The people 
were knocked up with working the pumps, and so 
took to their boats, and left me with the vessel, to 
sink or swim. But the dogs had their pay, and I 
can afford to pardon them — The boat swamped in 
the current — all were lost — and here am I.” 

“ You had come north about then, from the West 
Indies ? ” said Mordaunt. 

‘‘Ay, ay; the vessel was the Good Hope of 


THE PIRATE. 


129 


Bristol, a letter of marque. She had fine luck down 
on the Spanish main, both with commerce and pri- 
vateering, but the luck’s ended with her now. My 
name is Clement Cleveland, captain, and part owner, 
as I said before — I am a Bristol man bom — my 
father was well known on the Tollsell — old Clem 
Cleveland of the College-green.” 

Mordaunt had no right to enquire farther, and yet 
it seemed to him as if his own mind was but half 
satisfied. There was an affectation of bluntness, a 
sort of defiance, in the manner of the stranger, for 
which circumstances afforded no occasion. Captain 
Cleveland had suffered injustice from the islanders, 
but from Mordaunt he had only received kindness 
and protection ; yet he seemed as if he involved all 
the neighbourhood in the wrongs he complained of. 
Mordaunt looked down and was silent, doubting 
whether it would be better to take his leave, or to 
proceed farther in his offers of assistance. Cleve- 
land seemed to guess at his thoughts, for he imme- 
diately added, in a conciliating manner, — “I am a 
plain man. Master Mertoun, for that I understand 
is your name ; and I am a ruined man to boot, and 
that does not mend one’s good manners. But you 
have done a kind and friendly part by me, and it 
may be I think as much of it as if I thanked you 
more. And so before I leave this place. I’ll give 
you my fowlingpiece ; she will put a hundred swan- 
shot through a Dutchman’s cap at eighty paces — 
she will carry ball too — I have hit a wild bull 
within a hundred-and-fifty yards — but I have two 
pieces that are as good, or better, so you may keep 
this for my sake.” 

“ That would be to take my share of the wreck,” 
answered Mordaunt, laughing. 

VOL. I. — * 9 


130 


THE PIRATE. 


‘‘No such matter,” said Cleveland, undoing a case 
which contained several guns and pistols, — “ you 
see I have saved my private arm-chest, as well as 
my clothes — that the tall old woman in the dark 
rigging managed for me. And, between ourselves, 
it is worth all I have lost ; for,” he added, lowering 
his voice, and looking round, “ when I speak of be- 
ing ruined in the hearing of these landsharks, I do 
not mean ruined stock and block. No, here is some- 
thing will do more than shoot sea-fowl.” So saying, 
he pulled out a great ammunition-pouch marked 
swan-shot, and showed Mordaunt, hastily, that it 
was full of Spanish pistoles and Portagues (as the 
broad Portugal pieces were then called.) “ No, no,” 
he added, with a smile, “ I have ballast enough to 
trim the vessel again ; and now, will you take the 
piece ? ” 

“ Since you are willing to give it me,” said Mor- 
daunt, laughing, “with all my heart. I was just 
going to ask you in mj father’s name,” he added, 
showing his purse, “whether you wanted any of 
that same ballast.” 

“ Thanks, but you see I am provided — take my 
old acquaintance, and may she serve you as well as 
she has served me ; but you will never make so good 
a voyage with her. You can shoot, I suppose ? ” 

“ Tolerably well,” said Mordaunt, admiring the 
piece, which was a beautiful Spanish-barrelled gun, 
inlaid with gold, small in the bore, and of unusual 
length, such as is chiefly used for shooting sea-fowl, 
and for ball-practice. 

“With slugs,” continued the donor, “never gun 
shot closer ; and with single ball, you may kill a 
seal two hundred yards at sea from the top of the 
highest peak of this iron-bound coast of yours. But 


THE PIRATE. 


131 

I tell you again, that the old rattler will never do 
you the service she has done me.” 

“ I shall not use her so dexterously, perhaps,” said 
Mordaunt. 

“ Umph ! — perhaps not,” replied Cleveland ; “ but 
that is not the question. What say you to shoot- 
ing the man at the wheel, just as we run aboard of 
a Spaniard ? So the Don was taken aback, and we 
laid him athwart the hawse, and carried her cutlass 
in hand ; and worth the while she was — stout brig- 
antine — El Santo Francisco — bound for Porto Bello, 
with gold and negroes. That little bit of lead was 
worth twenty thousand pistoles.” 

“ I have shot at no such game as yet,” said 
Mordaunt. 

“Well, all in good time ; we cannot weigh till 
the tide makes. But you are a tight, handsome, 
active young man. What is to ail you to take a 
trip after some of this stuff ? ” laying his hand on 
the bag of gold. 

“ My father talks of my travelling soon,” replied 
Mordaunt, who, born to hold men-of-wars-men in 
great respect, felt flattered by this invitation from 
one who appeared a thorough-bred seaman. 

“ I respect him for the thought,” said the Cap- 
tain ; “ and I will visit him before I weigh anchor. 
I have a consort off these islands, and be cursed 
to her. She’ll And me out somewhere, though she 
parted company in the bit of a squall, unless she 
is gone to Davy Jones too. — Well, she was better 
found than we, and not so deep loaded — she must 
have weathered it. We’ll have a hammock slung 
for you aboard, and make a sailor and a man of you 
in the same trip.” 

“ I should like it well enough,” said Mordaunt, 


132 


THE PIRATE. 


who eagerly longed to see more of the world than 
his lonely situation had hitherto permitted ; “ but 
then my father must decide.” 

“ Your father ? pooh ! ” said Captain Cleveland ; 
— but you are very right,” he added, checking 
himself ; Gad, I have lived so long at sea, that I 
cannot imagine any body has a right to think except 
the captain and the master. But you are very right. 
I will go up to the old gentleman this instant, and 
speak to him myself. He lives in that Tiandsome, 
modern-looking building, I suppose, that I see a 
quarter of a mile off?” 

“ In that old half-ruined house,” said Mordaunt, 
“ he does indeed live ; but he will see no visitors.” 

“Then you must drive the point yourself, for I 
can’t stay in this latitude. Since your father is no 
magistrate, I must go to see this same Magnus — 
how call you him ? — who is not justice of peace, 
but something else that will do the turn as well. 
These fellows have got two or three things that I 
must and will have back — let them keep the rest 
and be d — d to them. Will you give me a letter to 
him, just by way of commission ? ” 

“ It is scarce needful,” said Mordaunt. “ It is 
enough that you are shipwrecked, and need his 
help ; — but yet I may as well furnish you with a 
letter of introduction.” 

“ There,” said the sailor, producing a writing-case 
from his chest, “ are your writing-tools. — Mean- 
time, since bulk has been broken, I will nail down 
the hatches, and make sure of the cargo.” 

While Mordaunt, accordingly, was engaged in 
writing to Magnus Troil a letter, setting forth the 
circumstances in which Captain Cleveland had been 
thrown upon their coast, the Captain, having first 


THE PIRATE. 


133 


selected and laid aside some wearing apparel and 
necessaries enough to fill a knapsack, took in hand 
hammer and nails, employed himself in securing 
the lid of his sea-chest, by fastening it down in a 
workmanlike manner, and then added the corrobo- 
rating security of a cord, twisted and knotted with 
nautical dexterity. “ I leave this in your charge,” 
he said, “ all except this,” showing the bag of gold, 
“ and these,” pointing to a cutlass and pistols, 
“ which may prevent all further risk of my parting 
company with my Portagues.” 

“ You will find no occasion for weapons in this 
country. Captain Cleveland,” replied Mordaunt ; “ a 
child might travel with a purse of gold from Sum- 
burgh-head to the Scaw of Unst, and no soul would 
injure him.” 

“ And that’s pretty boldly said, young gentleman, 
considering what is going on without doors at this 
moment.” 

“ O,” replied Mordaunt, a little confused, “ what 
comes on land with the tide, they reckon their law- 
ful property. One would think they had studied 
under Sir Arthegal, who pronounces — 

‘ For equal right in equal things doth stand, 

And what the mighty sea hath once possess’d. 

And plucked quite from all possessors’ hands, 

Or else by wrecks that wretches have distress’d, 

. He may dispose, by his resistless might, 

As things at random left, to whom he list.’ ” 

‘‘ I shall think the better of plays and ballads as 
long as I live, for these very words,” said Captain 
Cleveland ; “ and yet I have loved them well enough 
in my day. But this is good doctrine, and more 
men than one may trim their sails to such a breeze. 


134 


THE PIRATE. 


What the sea sends is ours, that’s sure enough. 
However, in case that your good folks should think 
the land as well as the sea may present them with 
waiffs and strays, I will make bold to take my cut- 
lass and pistols. — Will you cause my chest to be 
secured in your own house till you hear from me, 
and use your influence to procure me a guide to show 
me the way, and to carry my kit ? ” 

“ Will you go by sea or land ? ” said Mordaunt, 
in reply. 

“ By sea ! ” exclaimed Cleveland. “ What — in 
one of these cockleshells, and a cracked cockleshell, 
to boot ? No, no — land, land, unless I knew my 
crew, my vessel, and my voyage.” 

They parted accordingly, Captain Cleveland be- 
ing supplied with a guide to conduct him to Burgh- 
Westra, and his chest being carefully removed to 
the mansion-house at Jarlshof. 


CHAPTEE IX. 


This is a gentle trader, and a prudent. 

He’s no Autolycus, to blear your eye, 

With quips of worldly gauds and gamesomeness ; 

But seasons all his glittering merchandise 
With wholesome doctrines, suited to the use, 

As men sauce goose with sage and rosemary. 

Old Play. 

On the subsequent morning, Mordaunt, in answer to 
his father’s enquiries, began to give him some account 
of the shipwrecked mariner, whom he had rescued 
from the waves. But he had not proceeded far in 
recapitulating the particulars which Cleveland had 
communicated, when Mr. Mertoun’s looks became 
disturbed — he arose hastily, and, after pacing twice 
or thrice across the room, he retired into the inner 
chamber, to which he usually confined himself, while 
under the influence of his mental malady. In the 
evening he re-appeared, without any traces of his 
disorder ; but it may be easily supposed that his son 
avoided recurring to the subject which had affected 
him. 

Mordaunt Mertoun was thus left without assist- 
ance, to form at his leisure his own opinion respect- 
ing the new acquaintance which the sea had sent 
him ; and, upon the whole, he was himself surprised 
to find the result less favourable to the stranger 
than he could well account for. There seemed to 
Mordaunt to be a sort of repelling influence about 
the man. True, he was a handsome man, of a frank 


36 


THE PIRATE. 


and prepossessing manner, but there was an assump- 
tion of superiority about him, which Mordaunt did 
not quite so much like. Although he was so keen a 
sportsman as to be delighted with his acquisition of 
the Spanish-barrelled gun, and accordingly mounted 
and dismounted it with great interest, paying the 
utmost attention to the most minute parts about 
the lock and ornaments, yet he was, upon the whole, 
inclined to have some scruples about the mode in 
which he had acquired it. 

“ I should not have accepted it,” he thought ; “ per- 
haps Captain Cleveland might give it me as a sort of 
payment for the trifling service I did him ; and yet 
it would have been churlish to refuse it in the -way 
it was offered. I wish he had looked more like a 
man whom one would have chosen to be obliged to.” 

But a successful day’s shooting reconciled him to 
his gun, and he became assured, like most young 
sportsmen in similar circumstances, that all other 
pieces were but pop-guns in comparison. But then, 
to be doomed to shoot gulls and seals, when there 
were Frenchmen and Spaniards to be come at — 
when there were ships to be boarded, and steersmen 
to be marked off, seemed but a dull and contemptible 
destiny. His father had mentioned his leaving these 
islands, and no other mode of occupation occurred to 
his inexperience, save that of the sea, with which he 
had been conversant from his infancy. His ambi- 
tion had formerly aimed no higher than at sharing 
the fatigues and dangers of a Greenland Ashing ex- 
pedition ; for it was in that scene that the Zetlanders 
laid most of their perilous adventures. But war was 
again raging, the history of Sir Francis Drake, Cap- 
tain Morgan, and other bold adventurers, an account 
of whose exploits he had purchased from Bryce 


THE PIRATE. 


137 


Snailsfoot, had made much impression on his mind, 
and the offer of Captain Cleveland to take him to 
sea, frequently recurred to him, although the pleas- 
ure of such a project was somewhat damped by a 
doubt, whether, in the long run, he should not find 
many objections to his proposed commander. Thus 
much he already saw, that he was opinionative, and 
might probably prove arbitrary ; and that, since even 
his kindness was mingled with an assumption of 
superiority, his occasional displeasure might contain 
a great deal more of that disagreeable ingredient 
than could be palatable to those who sailed undei 
him. And yet, after counting all risks, could his 
father’s consent be obtained, with what pleasure, he 
thought, would he embark in quest of new scenes 
and strange adventures, in which he proposed to 
himself to achieve such deeds as should be the theme 
of many a tale to the lovely sisters of Burgh- Wes- 
tra — tales at which Minna should weep, and Brenda 
should smile, and both should marvel ! And this 
was to be the reward of his labours and his dangers ; 
for the hearth of Magnus Troil had a magnetic in- 
fluence over his thoughts, and however they might 
traverse amid his day-dreams, it was the point where 
they finally settled. 

There were times when Mordaunt thought of men- 
tioning to his father the conversation he had held 
with Captain Cleveland, and the seaman’s proposal 
to him; but the very short and general account 
which he had given of that person’s history, upon 
the morning after his departure from the hamlet, 
had produced a sinister effect on Mr. Mertoun’s 
mind, and discouraged him from speaking farther 
on any subject connected with it. It would be time 
enough, he thought, to mention Captain Cleveland’s 


THE PIRATE. 


138 

proposal, when his consort should arrive, and when 
he should repeat his offer in a more formal man- 
ner ; and these he supposed events likely very soon 
to happen. 

But days grew to weeks, and weeks were num- 
bered into months, and he heard nothing from Cleve- 
land; and only learned by an occasional visit from 
Bryce Snailsfoot, that the Captain was residing at 
Burgh- Wes tra, as one of the family. Mordaunt was 
somewhat surprised at this, although the unlimited 
hospitality of the islands, which Magnus Troil, both 
from fortune and disposition, carried to the utmost 
extent, made it almost a matter of course that he 
should remain in the family until he disposed of 
himself otherwise. Still it seemed strange he had 
not gone to some of the northern isles to enquire 
after his consort ; or that he did not rather choose 
to make Lerwick his residence, where fishing vessels 
often brought news from the coasts and ports of 
Scotland and Holland. Again, why did he not send 
for the chest he had deposited at Jarlshof ? and still 
farther, Mordaunt thought it would have been but 
polite if the stranger had sent him some sort of mes- 
sage in token of remembrance. 

These subjects of reflection were connected with 
another still more unpleasant, and more difficult 
to account for. Until the arrival of this person, 
scarce a week had passed without bringing him 
some kind greeting, or token of recollection, from 
Burgh-Westra ; and pretences were scarce ever 
wanting for maintaining a constant intercourse. 
Minna wanted the words of a Norse ballad ; or 
desired to have, for her various collections, feathers, 
or eggs, or shells, or specimens of the rarer sea- 
weeds ; or Brenda sent a riddle to be resolved, 


THE PIRATE. 


139 


or a song to be learned ; or the honest old Udaller, 
— in a rude manuscript, which might have passed 
for an ancient Runic inscription, — sent his hearty 
greetings to his good young friend, with a present 
of something to make good cheer, and an earnest 
request he would come to Burgh- Westra as soon, 
and stay there as long, as possible. These kindly 
tokens of remembrance were often sent by special 
message ; besides which, there was never a passen- 
ger or a traveller, who crossed from the one mansion 
to the other, who did not bring to Mordaunt some 
friendly greeting from the Udaller and his family. 
Of late, this intercourse had become more and more 
infrequent; and no messenger from Burgh- Westra 
had visited Jarlshof for several weeks. Mordaunt 
both observed and felt this alteration, 'and it dwelt on 
his mind, while he questioned Bryce as closely as 
pride and prudence would permit, to ascertain, if pos- 
sible, the cause of the change. Yet he endeavoured 
to assume an indifferent air while he asked the jag- 
ger whether there were no news in the country. 

“ Great news,” the jagger replied ; “ and a gay 
mony of them. That crackbrained carle, the new 
factor, is for making a change in the hismars and 
the li^punds ; ^ and our worthy Fowd, Magnus Troil, 
has sworn, that, sooner than change them for the 
still-yard, or aught else, he’ll fling Factor Yellow- 
ley from Brassa-craig.” 

“ Is that all ?” said Mordaunt, very little interested. 

“All? and eneugh, I think,” replied the pedlar. 

“ How are folks to buy and sell, if the weights are 
changed on them ? ” 

“Very true,” replied Mordaunt; “but have you 
heard of no strange vessels on the coast ? ” 

1 These are weights of Norwegian origin, still used in Zetland 


140 


THE PIRATE. 


“Six Dutch doggers off Brassa; and, as I hear, 
a high-quartered galliot thing, with a gaff mainsail, 
lying in Scalloway Bay. She will he from Norway.” 

“No ships of war, or sloops ?” 

“ None,” replied the pedlar, “ since the Kite Ten- 
der sailed with the impress men. If it was His 
will, and our men were out of her, I wish the deep 
sea had her ! ” 

“ Were there no news at Burgh- Westra ? — Were 
the family all well ? ” 

“ A’ weel, and weel to do — out-taken, it may 
be, something ower muckle daffing and laughing — 
dancing ilk night, they say, wi’ the stranger cap- 
tain that’s living there — him that was ashore on 
Sumburgh-head the tother day, — less daffing served 
him then.” 

“Daffing ! dancing every night ! ” said Mordaunt, 
not particularly well satisfied — “ Whom does Cap- 
tain Cleveland dance with ? ” 

“Ony body he likes, I fancy,” said the jagger; 
“ at ony rate, he gars a’ body yonder dance after his 
fiddle. But I ken little about it, for I am no free in 
conscience to look upon thae flinging fancies. Folk 
should mind that life is made but of rotten yarn.” 

“ I fancy that it is to keep them in mind of that 
wholesome truth, that you deal in such tender 
wares, Bryce,” replied Mordaunt, dissatisfied as 
well with the tenor of the reply, as with the af- 
fected scruples of the respondent. 

“ That’s as muckle as to say, that I suld hae 
minded you was a flinger and a fiddler yoursell, 
Maister Mordaunt ; but I am an auld man, and 
maun unburden my conscience. But ye will be 
for the dance, I sail warrant, that’s to be at Burgh- 
Westra, on John’s Even, {Saunt John’s, as the 


THE PIRATE. 


141 

blinded creatures ca’ him,) and nae doubt ye will 
be for some warldly braws — hose, waistcoats, or 
sic like ? I hae pieces frae Flanders.” — With that 
he placed his movable warehouse on the table, and 
began to unlock it. 

“ Dance ! ” repeated Mordaunt — “ Dance on St. 
John’s Even? — Were you desired to bid me to it, 
Bryce ? ” 

“ Na — but ye ken weel eneugh ye wad be wel- 
come, bidden or no bidden. This captain — how 
ca’ ye him ? — is to be skudler, as they ca’t — the 
first of the gang, like.” 

“The devil take him!” said Mordaunt, in im- 
patient surprise. 

“A’ in glide time,” replied the jagger; “hurry 
no man’s cattle — the devil will hae his due, I war- 
rant ye, or it winna he for lack of seeking. But 
it’s true I’m telling you, for a’ ye stare like a wild- 
cat ; and this same captain, — I watna his name, — 
bought ane of the very waistcoats that I am gang- 
ing to show ye — purple, wi’ a gowd binding, and 
bonnily broidered ; and I have a piece for you, the 
neighbour of it, wi’ a green grund ; and if ye mean 
to streek yoursell up beside him, ye maun e’en buy 
it, for it’s gowd that glances in the lasses’ een now- 
a-days. See — look till’t,” he added, displaying the 
pattern in various points of view ; “ look till it 
through the light, and till the light through it — 
wi' the grain, and against the grain — it shows ony 
gate — cam frae Antwerp a’ the gate — four dollars 
is the price ; and yon captain was sae weel pleased 
that he flang down a twenty shilling Jacobus, and 
bade me keep the change and be d — d \ — poor 
silly profane creature, I pity him.” 

Without enquiring whether the pedlar bestowed 


142 


THE PIRATE. 


his compassion on the worldly imprudence or the 
religious deficiencies of Captain Cleveland, Mor- 
daunt turned from him, folded his arms, and paced 
the apartment, muttering to himself, “ Not asked 
— A stranger to be king of the feast!” — Words 
which he repeated so earnestly, that Bryce caught 
a part of their import. 

“ As for asking, I am almaist bauld to say, that 
ye will be asked, Maister Mordaunt.” 

Did they mention my name, then ? ” said 
Mordaunt 

I canna preceesely say that,” said Bryce Snails- 
foot ; — “ but ye needna turn away your head sae 
sourly, like a sealgh when he leaves the shore ; for, 
do you see, I heard distinctly that a’ the revellers 
about are to be there ; and is’t to be thought they 
would leave out you, an auld kend freend, and the 
lightest foot at sic frolics (Heaven send you a better 
praise in His ain gude time !) that ever flang at a 
fiddle-squeak, between this and Unst ? Sae I con- 
sider ye altogether the same as invited — and ye had 
best provide yourself wi’ a waistcoat, for brave and 
brisk will every man be that’s there — the Lord 
pity them ! ” 

He thus continued to follow with his green glazen 
eyes the motions of young Mordaunt Mertoun, who 
was pacing the room in a very pensive manner, 
which the jagger probably misinterpreted, as he 
thought, like Claudio, that if a man is sad, it must 
needs be because he lacks money. Bryce, therefore, 
after another pause, thus accosted him. “ Ye needna 
be sad about the matter, Maister Mordaunt ; for al- 
though I got the just price of the article from the 
captain-man, yet I maun deal freendly wi’ you, as a 
kend freend and customer, and bring the price, as 


THE PIRATE. 


143 


they say, within your purse-mouth — or it*s the 
same to me to let it lie ower till Martinmas, or e’en 
to Candlemas. I am decent in the warld, Maister 
Mordaunt — forbid that I should hurry ony body, 
far mair a f reend that has paid me siller afore now. 
Or I wad be content to swap the garment for the 
value in feathers or sea-otters’ skins, or ony kind of 
peltrie — nane kens better than yourSell how to 
come by sic ware — and I am sure I hae furnished 
you wi’ the primest 0’ powder. I dinna ken if I 
tell’d ye it was out o’ the kist of Captain Plunket, 
that perished on the Scaw of Unst, wi’ the armed 
brig Mary, sax years syne. He was a prime fowler 
himself, and luck it was that the kist came ashore 
dry. I sell that to nane but gude marksmen. And 
so, I was saying, if ye had ony wares ye liked to 
coup ^ for the waistcoat, I wad be ready to trock wi’ 
you, for assuredly ye will be wanted at Burgh- 
Westra, on Saint John’s Even ; and ye wadna like 
to look waur than the Captain — that wadna be 
setting.” 

“ I will be there at least whether wanted or not,” 
said Mordaunt, stopping short in his walk, and 
taking the waistcoat-piece hastily out of the pedlar’s 
hand ; “ and, as you say, will not disgrace them.” 

“ Hand a care — hand a care, Maister Mordaunt,” 
exclaimed the pedlar ; “ ye handle it as it were a 
bale of coarse wadmaal — ye’ll fray’t to bits — ye 
might weel say my ware is tender — and ye’ll mind 
the price is four dollars — Sail I put ye in my book 
for it ? ” 

“No,” said Mordaunt, hastily; and, taking out 
his purse, he flung down the money. 

“ Grace to ye to wear the garment,” said the 

1 Barter. 


■u 


THE PIRATE. 


joyous pedlar, “and to me to guide the siller; and 
protect us from earthly vanities, and earthly covetous- 
ness ; and send you the white linen raiment, whilk 
is mair to be desired than the muslins, and cam- 
brics, and lawns, and silks of this world ; and . send 
me the talents which avail more than much fine 
Spanish gold, or Dutch dollars either — and — but 
God guide the callant, what for is he wrapping the 
silk up that gate, like a wisp of hay ? ” 

At this moment, old Swertha the housekeeper en- 
tered, to whom, as if eager to get rid of the subject, 
Mordaunt threw his purchase, with something like 
careless disdain ; and, telling her to put it aside, 
snatched his gun, which stood in the corner, threw 
his shooting accoutrements about him, and, without 
noticing Bryce’s attempt to enter into conversation 
upon the “braw seal-skin, as saft as doe-leather,” 
which made the sling and cover of his fowling- 
piece, he left the apartment abruptly. 

The jagger, with those green, goggling, and gain- 
descrying kind of optics, which we have already 
described, continued gazing for an instant after 
the customer, who treated his wares with such 
irreverence. 

Swertha also looked after him with some surprise. 
“ The callant’s in a creel,” quoth she. 

“ In a creel ! ” echoed the pedlar ; “ he will be as 
wowf as ever his father was. To guide in that gate 
a bargain that cost him four dollars ! — very, very 
Fifish, as the east-country fisher-folk say.” 

“ Four dollars for that green rag ! ” said Swertha, 
catching at the words which the jagger had un- 
warily suffered to escape — “ that was a bargain in- 
deed ! I wonder whether he is the greater fule, or 
you the mair rogue, Bryce Snailsfoot.” 


THE PIRATE. 


145 


“ I didna say it cost him preceesely four dollars/’ 
said Snailsfoot; “but if it had, the lad’s siller’s his 
ain, I hope ; and he is auld eneugh to make his ain 
bargains. Mair by token the gudes are weel worth 
the money, and mair.” 

“Mair by token,” said Swertha, coolly, “I will 
see what his father thinks about it.” 

“ Ye’ll no be sae ill-natured, Mrs. Swertha,” said 
the j agger ; “ that will be but cauld thanks for the 
bonny owerlay that I hae brought you a’ the way 
frae Lerwick.” 

“ And a bonny price ye’ll be setting on’t,” said 
Swertha; “for that’s the gate your good deeds end.” 

“Ye sail hae the fixing of the price yoursell; or 
it may lie ower till ye’re buying something for the 
house, or for your master, and it can make a’ ae 
count.” 

“Troth, and that’s true, Bryce Snailsfoot, I am 
thinking we’ll want some napery sune — for it’s no 
to be thought we can spin, and the like, as if there 
was a mistress in the house ; and sae we make nane 
at hame.” 

“And that’s what I ca’ walking by the word,” 
said the j agger. “ ' Go unto those that buy and sell ; ’ 
there’s muckle profit in that text.” 

“ There is a pleasure in dealing wi’ a discreet 
man, that can make profit of ony thing,” said Swer- 
tha ; “ and now that I take another look at that daft 
callanks waistcoat piece, I think it is honestly 
worth four dollars.” 


VOL. I. — 10 


CHAPTER X. 


I have possessed the regulation of the weather and the dis- 
tribution of the seasons. The sun has listened to my dictates, 
and passed from tropic to tropic by my direction ; the clouds, at 
my command, have poured forth their waters. 

Rasselas. 

Any sudden cause for anxious and mortifying 
reflection, which, in advanced age, occasions sullen 
and pensive inactivity, stimulates youth to eager 
and active exertion ; as if, like the hurt deer, they 
endeavoured to drown the pain of the shaft by the 
rapidity of motion. When Mordaunt caught up his 
gun, and rushed out of the house of Jarlshof, he 
walked on with great activity over waste and wild, 
without any determined purpose, except that of 
escaping, if possible, from the smart of his own 
irritation. His pride was effectually mortified by 
the report of the jagger, which coincided exactly 
with some doubts he had been led to entertain, 
by the long and unkind silence of his friends at 
Burgh-Westra. 

If the fortunes of Caesar had doomed him, as the 
poet suggests, to have been 

“ But the best wrestler on the green,” 

it is nevertheless to be presumed, that a foil from 
a rival, in that rustic exercise, would have mortified 
him as much as a defeat from a competitor, when he 
was struggling for the empery of the world. And 
even so Mordaunt Mertoun, degraded in his own eyes 


THE PIRATE. 


U7 


from the height which he had occupied as the chief 
amongst the youth of the island, felt vexed and 
irritated, as well as humbled. The two beautiful 
sisters, also, whose smiles all were so desirous of 
acquiring, with whom he had lived on terms of such 
familiar affection, that, with the same ease and in- 
nocence, there was unconsciously mixed a shade of 
deeper though undefined tenderness than charac- 
terises fraternal love, — they also seemed to have 
forgotten him. He could not be ignorant, that, in 
the universal opinion of all Dunrossness, nay, of the 
whole Mainland, he might have had every chance 
of being the favoured lover of either ; and now at 
once, and without any failure on his part, he was 
become so little to them, that he had lost even the 
consequence of an ordinary acquaintance. The old 
Udaller, too, whose hearty and sincere character 
should have made him more constant in his friend- 
ships, seemed to have been as fickle as his daugh- 
ters, and poor Mordaunt had at once lost the smiles 
of the fair, and the favour of the powerful. These 
were uncomfortable reflections, and he doubled his 
pace, that he might outstrip them if possible. 

Without exactly reflecting upon the route which 
he pursued, Mordaunt walked briskly on through 
a country where neither hedge, wall, nor enclosure 
of any kind, interrupts the steps of the wanderer, 
until he, reached a very solitary spot, where, em- 
bosomed among steep heathy hills, which sunk sud- 
denly down on the verge of the water, lay one of 
those small fresh-water lakes which are common in 
the Zetland isles, whose outlets form the sources of 
the small brooks and rivulets by which the country 
is watered, and serve to drive the little mills which 
manufacture their grain. 


148 


THE PIRATE. 


It was a mild summer day ; the beams of the sun, 
as is not uncommon in Zetland, were moderated and 
shaded by a silvery haze, which filled the atmo- 
sphere, and destroying the strong contrast of light 
and shade, gave even to noon the sober livery of the 
evening twilight. The little lake, not three-quarters 
of a mile in circuit, lay in profound quiet ; its sur- 
face undimpled, save when one of the numerous 
water-fowl, which glided on its surface, dived for an 
instant under it. The depth of the water gave the 
whole that cerulean tint of bluish green, which oc- 
casioned its being called the Green Loch ; and at 
present, it formed so perfect a mirror to the bleak 
hills by which it was surrounded, and which lay re- 
flected on its bosom, that it was difficuh to distin- 
* guish the water from the land ; nay, in the shadowy 
uncertainty occasioned by the thin haze, a stranger 
could scarce have been sensible that a sheet of water 
lay before him. A scene of more complete solitude, 
having all its peculiarities heightened by the ex- 
treme serenity of the weather, the quiet grey com- 
posed tone of the atmosphere, and the perfect silence 
of the elements, could hardly be imagined. The 
very aquatic birds, who frequented the spot in great 
numbers, forbore their usual flight and screams, and 
floated in profound tranquillity upon the silent 
water. 

Without taking any determined aim ■ ■ without 
having any determined purpose — without almost 
thinking what he was about, Mordaunt presented his 
fowlingpiece, and fired across the lake. The large 
swan-shot dimpled its surface like a partial shower 
of hail — the hills took up the noise of the report, 
and repeated it again, and again, and again, to all 
their echoes ; the water-fowl took to wing in eddy- 


THE PIRATE. 


149 


ing and confused wheel, answering the echoes with a 
thousand varying screams, from the deep note of 
the swabie, or swartback, to the querulous cry of the 
tirracke and kit tie wake. 

Mordaunt looked for a moment on the clamorous 
crowd with a feeling of resentment, which he felt 
disposed at the moment to apply to all nature, and 
all her objects, animate or inanimate, however 
little concerned with the cause of his internal 
mortification. 

“ Ay, ay,” he said, “ wheel, dive, scream, and 
clamour as you will, and all because you have seen 
a strange sight, and heard an unusual sound. There 
is many a one like you in this round world. But 
you, at least, shall learn,” he added, as he reloaded 
his gun, “ that strange sights and strange sounds, 
ay, and strange acquaintances to boot, have some- 
times a little shade of danger connected with them. 
— But why should I wreak my own vexation on 
these harmless sea-gulls ? ” he subjoined, after a 
moment’s pause ; “ they have nothing to do with 
the friends that have forgotten me. — I loved them 
all so well, — and to be so soon given up for the 
first stranger whom chance threw on the coast !” 

As he stood resting upon his gun, and abandon- 
ing his mind to the course of these unpleasant 
reflections, his meditations were unexpectedly inter- 
rupted by some one touching his shoulder. He 
looked around, and saw Norna of the Fitful-head, 
wrapped in her dark and ample mantle. She had 
seen him from the brow of the hill, and had de- 
scended to the lake, through a small ravine which 
concealed her, until she came with noiseless step 
so close to him that he turned round at her touch. 

Mordaunt Mertoun was by nature neither timor* 


150 


THE PIRATE. 


ous nor credulous, and a course of reading more ex- 
tensive than usual had, in some degree, fortified his 
mind against the attacks of superstition; but he 
would have been an actual prodigy, if, living in Zet- 
land in the end of the seventeenth century, he had 
possessed the philosophy which did not exist in Scot- 
land generally, until at least two generations later. 
He doubted in his own mind the extent, nay, the 
very existence, of Norna’s supernatural attributes, 
which was a high flight of incredulity in the coun- 
try where they were universally received ; but still 
his incredulity went no farther than doubts. She 
was unquestionably an extraordinary woman, gifted 
with an energy above others, acting upon motives 
peculiar to herself, and apparently independent of 
mere earthly considerations. Impressed with these 
ideas, which he had imbibed from his youth, it was 
not without something like alarm, that he beheld 
this mysterious female standing on a sudden so close 
beside him, and looking upon him with such sad and 
severe eyes, as those with which the Fatal Virgins, 
who, according to northern mythology, were called 
the Valhyriur, or “Choosers of the Slain," were 
supposed to regard the young champions whom 
they selected to share the banquet of Odin. 

It was, indeed, reckoned unlucky,- to say the least, 
to meet with Norna suddenly alone, and in a place 
remote from witnesses ; and she was supposed, on 
such occasions, to have been usually a prophetess of 
evil, as well as an omen of misfortune, to those who 
had such a rencontre. There were few or none of 
the islanders, however familiarized with her occa- 
sional appearance in society, that would not have 
trembled to meet her on the solitary banks of the 
Green Loch. 


THE PIRATE. . 


15 * 


“I bring you no evil, Mordaunt Mertoun,” she 
said, reading perhaps something of this superstitious 
feeling in the looks of the young man. “ Evil from 
me you never felt, and never will.” 

“Nor do I fear any,” said Mordaunt, exerting 
himself to throw aside an apprehension which he 
felt to be unmanly. “ Why should I, mother ? You 
have been ever my friend.” 

“ Yet, Mordaunt, thou art not of our region ; but 
to none of Zetland blood, no, not even to those who 
sit around the hearth-stone of Magnus Troil, the 
noble descendants of the ancient Jarls of Orkney, 
am I more a well-wisher, than I am to thee, thou 
kind and brave-hearted boy. When I hung around 
thy neck that gifted chain, which all in our isles 
know was wrought by no earthly artist, but by the 
Drows,^ in the secret recesses of their caverns, thou 
wert then but fifteen years old; yet thy foot had 
been on the Maiden-skerrie of Northmaven, known 
before but to the webbed sole of the swartback, and 
thy skiff had been in the deepest cavern of Brinna- 
stir, where the }iaaf-jish‘^ had before slumbered in 


1 The Drows, or Trows, the legitimate successors of the 
northern daenjar, and somewhat allied to the fairies, reside, like 
them, in the interior of green hills and caverns, and are most 
powerful at midnight. They are curious artificers in iron, as 
well as in the precious metals, and are sometimes propitious to 
mortals, but more frequently capricious and malevolent. Among 
the common people of Zetland, their existence still forms an ar- 
ticle of universal belief. In the neighbouring isles of Feroe, they 
are called Foddenskencand, or subterranean people; and Lucas 
Jacobson Debes, (h) well acquainted with their nature, assures us 
that they inhabit those places whicli are polluted with the effu- 
sion of blood, or the practice of any crying sin. They have a 
government, which seems to be monarchical. 

The larger seal, or sea-calf, which seeks the most solitary; 
recesses for its abode. See Dr. Edmonstone’s Zetland, vol. ii.. 
p. 294. 


152 


THE PIRATE. 


dark obscurity. Therefore T gave thee that noble 
gift; and well thou knowest, that since that day, 
every eye in these isles has looked on thee as a son, 
or as a brother, endowed beyond other youths, and 
the favoured of those whose hour of. power is when 
the night meets with the day.” 

Alas ! mother,” said Mordaunt, “ your kind 
gift may have given me favour, but it has not been 
able to keep it for me, or I have not been able to 
keep it for myself. — What matters it ? I shall learn 
to set as little by others as they do by me. My 
father says that I shall soon leave these islands, and 
therefore. Mother Norna, I will return to you your 
fairy gift, that it may bring more lasting luck to 
some other than it has done to me.” 

“ Despise not the gift of the nameless race,” said 
Norna, frowning ; then suddenly changing her tone 
of displeasure to that of mournful solemnity, she 
added, — “ Despise them not, but, 0 Mordaunt, 
court them not ! Sit down on that grey stone — 
thou art the son of my adoption, and I will doff, as 
far as I may, those attributes that sever me from 
the common mass of humanity, and speak with you 
as a parent with a child.” 

There was a tremulous tone of grief which mingled 
with the loftiness of her language and carriage, and 
was calculated to excite sympathy, as well as to 
attract attention. Mordaunt sat down on the rock 
which she pointed out, a fragment which, with many 
others that lay scattered around, had been torn by 
some winter storm from the precipice at the foot 
of which it lay, upon the very verge of the water. 
Norna took her own seat on a stone at about three 
feet distance, adjusted her mantle so that little more 
than her forehead, her eyes, and a single lock of her 


THE PIEATE. 


153 


grey hair, were seen from beneath the shade of her 
dark wadmaal cloak, and then proceeded in a tone 
in which the imaginary consequence and importance 
so often assumed by lunacy, seemed to contend 
against the deep workings of some extraordinary 
and deeply-rooted mental affliction. 

“ I was not always,” she said, “ that which I now 
am. I was not always the wise, the powerful, the 
commanding, before whom the young stand abashed, 
and the old uncover their grey heads. There was 
a time when my appearance did not silence mirth, 
when I sympathized with human passion, and had 
my own share in human Joy or sorrow. It was a 
time of helplessness — it was a time of folly — it was 
a time of idle and unfruitful laughter — it was a time 
of causeless and senseless tears ; — and yet, with its 
follies, and its sorrows, and its weaknesses, what 
would Norna of Fitful-head give to be again the 
unmarked and happy maiden that she was in her 
early days ! Hear me, Mordaunt, and bear with 
me ; for you hear me utter complaints which have 
never sounded in mortal ears, and which in mortal 
ears shall never sound again. I will be what I 
ought,” she continued, starting up and extending 
her lean and withered arm, “ the queen and protec- 
tress of these wild and neglected isles, — I will be 
her' whose foot the wave wets not, save by her per- 
mission ; ay, even though its rage be at its wildest 
madness — whose robe the whirlwind respects, when 
it rends the house-rigging from the roof-tree. Bear 
me witness, Mordaunt Mertoun, — you heard my 
words at Harfra — you saw the tempest sink before 
them — Speak, bear me witness ! ” 

To have contradicted her in this strain of high- 
toned enthusiasm, would have been cruel and un- 


154 


THE PIRATE. 


availing, even had Mordaunt been more decidedly 
convinced than he was, that an insane woman, not 
one of supernatural power, stood before him. 

“ I heard you sing,” he replied, “ and I saw the 
tempest abate.” 

“Abate?” exclaimed Norna, striking the ground 
impatiently with her staff of black oak ; “ thou 
speakest it but half — it sunk at once — sunk in 
shorter space than the child that is hushed to silence 
by the nurse. — Enough, you know my power — but 
you know not — mortal man knows not, and never 
shall know, the price which I paid to attain it. No, 
Mordaunt, never for the widest sway that the ancient 
Norsemen boasted, when their banners waved victo- 
rious from Bergen to Palestine — never, for all that 
the round world contains, do thou barter thy peace 
of mind for such greatness as Noma’s.” She re- 
sumed her seat upon the rock, drew the mantle over 
her face, rested her head upon her hands, and by 
the convulsive motion which agitated her bosom, 
appeared to be weeping bitterly. 

“ Good Norna,” said Mordaunt, and paused, scarce 
knowing what to say that might console the unhappy 
woman — “ Good Norna,” he again resumed, “ if 
there be aught in your mind that troubles it, were 
you not best to go to the worthy minister at Dun- 
rossness ? Men say you have not for many y^ars 
been in a Christian congregation — that cannot be 
well, or right. You are yourself well known as a 
healer of bodily disease ; but when the mind is sick, 
we should draw to the Physician of our souls.” 

Norna had raised her person slowly from the 
stooping posture in which she sat; but at length she 
started up on her feet, threw back her mantle, ex- 
tended her arm, and while her lip foamed, and her 


THE PIRATE. 


155 


eye sparkled, exclaimed in a tone resembling a 
scream;— “Me did you speak — me did you bid seek 
out a priest ! — would you kill the good man with 
horror ? — Me in a Christian congregation ! — Would 
you have the roof to fall on the sackless assembly, 
and mingle their blood with their worship i I — I 
seek to the good Physician ! — Would you have the 
fiend claim his prey openly before God and man ? ” 

The extreme agitation of the unhappy speaker 
naturally led Mordaunt to the conclusion, which was 
generally adopted and accredited in that supersti- 
tious country and period. “Wretched woman,” he 
said, “ if indeed thou hast leagued thyself with the 
Powers of Evil, why should you not seek even yet 
for repentance ? But do as thou wilt, I cannot, dare 
not, as a Christian, abide longer with you ; and take 
again your gift,” he said, offering back the chain. 
“ Good can never come of it, if indeed evil hath not 
come already.” 

“ Be still and hear me, thou foolish boy,” said 
Norna, calmly, as if she had been restored to reason 
by the alarm and horror which she perceived in Mor- 
daunt’ s countenance ; — “ hear me, I say. I am not 
of those who have leagued themselves with the 
Enemy of Mankind, or derive skill or power from 
his ministry. And although the unearthly powers 
were propitiated by a sacrifice which human tongue 
can never utter, yet, God knows, my guilt in that 
offering was no more than that of the blind man 
who falls from the precipice which he could neither 
see nor shun. 0, leave me not — shun me not — in 
this hour of weakness ! Eemain with me till the 
temptation be passed, or I will plunge myself into 
that lake, and rid myself at once of my power and 
my wretchedness I ” 


156 


THE PIRATE. 


Mordaunt, who had always looked up to this sin- 
gular woman with a sort of affection, occasioned no 
doubt by the early kindness and distinction which 
she had shown to him, was readily induced to re- 
assume his seat, and listen to what she had further 
to say, in hopes that she would gradually overcome 
the violence of her agitation. It was not long ere 
she seemed to have gained the victory her compan- 
ion expected, for she addressed him in her usual 
steady and authoritative manner. 

“ It was not of myself, Mordaunt, that I purposed 
to speak, when I beheld you from the summit of 
yonder grey rock, and came down the path to meet 
with you. My fortunes are fixed beyond change, be 
it for weal or for woe. For myself I have ceased 
to feel much ; but for those whom she loves, 
Norna of the Fitful-head has still those feelings 
which link her to her kind. Mark me. There 
is an eagle, the noblest that builds in these airy 
precipices, and into that eagle’s nest there has crept 
an adder — wilt thou lend thy aid to crush the 
reptile, and to save the noble brood of the lord of 
the north sky ? ” 

“ You must speak more plainly, Norna,” said 
Mordaunt, “ if you' would have me understand or 
answer you. 1 am no guesser of riddles.” 

“ In plain language, then, you know well the 
family of Burgh-Westra — the lovely daughters of 
the generous old Udaller, Magnus Troil, — Minna 
and Brenda, I mean ? You know them, and you 
love 'them ? ” 

“ I have known them, mother,” replied Mordaunt, 
“ and I have loved them — none knows it better 
than yourself.’’ 

“To know them once,” said ISTorna, emphatically. 


THE EIRATE. 


157 


** is to know them always. To love them once, is 
to love them for ever.” 

“ To have loved them once, is to wish them well 
for ever,” replied the youth; “but it is nothing 
more. To be plain with you, Norna, the family at 
Burgh-Westra have of late totally neglected me. 
But show me the means of serving them, I will 
convince you how, much I have remembered old 
kindness, how little I resent late coldness.” 

“ It is well spoken, and I will put your purpose 
to the proof,” replied Norna. “ Magnus Troil has 
taken a serpent into his bosom ^ — his lovely daugh- 
ters are delivered up to the machinations of a 
villain.” 

‘‘You mean the stranger, Cleveland?” said Mor- 
daunt. 

“The stranger who so calls himself,” replied 
Norna — “ the same whom we found flung ashore, like 
a waste heap of sea-weed, at the foot of the Sum- 
burgh-cape. I felt that within me, that would have 
prompted me to let him lie till the tide floated him 
off, as it had floated him on shore. I repent me I 
gave not way to it.” 

“ But,” said Mordaunt, “ I cannot repent that I 
did my duty as a Christian man. And what right 
have I to wish otherwise ? If Minna, Brenda, Mag- 
nus, and the rest, like that stranger better than me, 
I have no title to be offended ; nay, I might well be 
laughed at for bringing myself into comparison.” 

“ It is well, and I trust they merit thy unselfish 
friendship.” 

“ But I cannot perceive,” said Mordaunt, “ in what 
you can propose that I should serve them. I have 
but just learned by Bryce the jagger, that this 
Captain Cleveland is all in all with the ladies at 


THE PIRATE. 


i58 

Burgh- Westra, and with the Udaller himself. 1 
would like ill to intrude myself where I am not 
welcome, or to place my home-bred merit in com- 
parison with Captain Cleveland’s. He can tell them 
of battles, when I can only speak of birds’ nests — 
can speak of shooting Frenchmen, when I can only 
tell of shooting seals — he wears gay clothes, and 
bears a brave countenance; I am plainly dressed, 
and plainly nurtured. Such gay gallants as he can 
noose the hearts of those he lives with, as the fowler 
nooses the guillemot with his rod and line.” 

“You do wrong to yourself,” replied Norna, “ wrong 
to yourself, and greater wrong to Minna and Brenda. 
And trust not the reports of Bryce — he is like the 
greedy chaffer-whale, that will change his course 
and dive for the most petty coin which a fisher can 
cast at him. Certain it is, that if you have been 
lessened in the opinion of Magnus Troil, that sor- 
did fellow hath had some share in it. But let him 
count his vantage, for my eye is upon him.” 

“ And why, mother,” said Mordaunt, “ do you not 
tell to Magnus what you have told to me ? ” 

“Because,” replied Norna, “they who wax wise 
in their own conceit must be taught a bitter lesson 
by experience. It was but yesterday that I spoke 
with Magnus, and what was his reply ? — * Good 
Norna, you grow old.’ And this was spoken by one 
bounden to me by so many and such close ties — by 
the descendant of the ancient Norse earls — this 
was from Magnus Troil to me ; and it was said in 
behalf of one, whom the sea flung forth as wreck- 
weed! Since he despises the counsel of the aged, 
he shall be taught by that of the young ; and well 
that he is not left to his own folly. Go, therefore, to 
Burgh-Westra, as usual, upon the Baptist’s festival.’* 


THE PIRATE. 


159 


** I have had no invitation,” said Mordaunt ; “ I 
am not wanted, not wished for, not thought of — 
perhaps I shall not be acknowledged if I go thither ; 
and yet, mother, to confess the truth, thither I had 
thought to go.” 

“ It was a good thought, and to be cherished,” 
replied Norna; “we seek our friends when they 
are sick in health, why not when they are sick in 
mind, and surfeited with prosperity ? Do not fail 
to go — it may be, we shall meet there. Mean- 
while our roads lie different. Farewell, and speak 
not of this meeting.” 

They parted, and Mordaunt remained standing 
by the lake, with his eyes fixed on Norna, until her 
tall dark form became invisible among the windings 
of the valley down which she wandered, and Mor- 
daunt returned to his father’s mansion, determined 
to follow counsel which coincided so well with his 
own wishes. 


CHAPTEK XL 


All your ancient customs, 

And long-descended usages, I’ll change. 

Ye shall not eat, nor drink, nor speak, nor move, 

Think, look, or walk, as ye were wont to do. 

Even your marriage-beds shall know mutation ; 

The bride shall have the stock, the groom the wall ; 

For all old practice will I turn and change, 

And call it reformation — marry will I ! 

^Tis Even that weWe at Odds. 


The festal day approached, and still no invitation 
arrived for that guest, without whom, but a little 
space since, no feast could have been held in the 
island; while, on the other hand, such reports as 
reached them on every side spoke highly of the 
favour which Captain Cleveland enjoyed in the good 
graces of the old Udaller of Burgh-Westra. Swertha 
and the Eanzelman shook their heads at these muta- 
tions, and reminded Mordaunt, by many a half-hint 
and innuendo, that he had incurred this eclipse by 
being so imprudently active to secure the safety of 
the stranger, when he lay at the mercy of the next 
wave beneath the cliffs of Sumburgh-head. “It is 
best to let saut water take its gate,” said Swertha ; 
‘‘luck never came of crossing it.” 

“ In troth,” said the Eanzelman, “ they are wise 
folks that let wave and withy baud their ain — luck 
never came of a half-drowned man, or a half-hanged 
ane either. Who was’t shot Will Paterson off the 
Noss ? — the Dutchman that he saved from sinking, 


THE PIRATE. 


i6i 


I trow. To fling a drowning man a plank or a tow, 
may be the part of a Christian ; but I say, keep 
hands aff him, if ye wad live and thrive free frae 
his danger.” 

“ Ye are a wise man, Ranzelman, and a worthy,’’ 
echoed Swertha, with a groan, “ and ken how and 
whan to help a neighbour, as well as ony man that 
ever drew a net.” 

“ In troth, I have seen length of days,” answered 
the Ranzelman, “ and I have heard what the auld 
folk said to each other anent sic matters ; and nae 
man in Zetland shall go farther than I will in any 
Christian service to a man on firm land ; but if he 
cry ‘ Help ! ’ out of the saut waves, that’s another 
story.” 

“ And yet, to think of this lad Cleveland standing 
in our Maister Mordaunt’s light,” said Swertha, “ and 
with Magnus Troil, that thought him the flower of 
the island but on Whitsunday last, and Magnus, 
too, that’s both held (when he’s fresh, honest man) 
the wisest and wealthiest of Zetland ! ” 

“ He canna win by it,” said the Ranzelman, with 
a look of the deepest sagacity. “ There’s whiles, 
Swertha, that the wisest of us (as I am sure I 
humbly confess mysell not to be) may be little 
better than gulls, and can no more win by doing 
deeds of folly than I can step over Sumburgh-head. 
It has been my own case once or twice in my life. 
But we shall see soon what ill is to come of all this, 
for good there cannot come.” 

And Swertha answered, with the same tone of 
prophetic wisdom, “ Ha, na, gude can never come on 
it, and that is ower truly said.” 

These doleful predictions, repeated from time to 
time, had some effect upon Mordaunt. He did not 

VOL. I. — 11 


f62 


THE PIRATE. 


indeed suppose, that the charitable action of relieving 
a drowning man had subjected him, as a necessary 
and fatal consequence, to the unpleasant circum- 
stances in which he was placed ; yet he felt as if a 
sort of spell were drawn around him, of which he 
neither understood the nature nor the extent ; — 
that some power, in short, beyond his own control, 
was acting upon his destiny, and, as it seemed, with 
no friendly influence. His curiosity, as well as his 
anxiety, was highly excited, and he continued de- 
termined, at all events, to make his appearance at 
the approaching festival, when he was impressed 
with the belief that something uncommon was ne- 
cessarily to take place, which should determine his 
future views and prospects in life. 

As the elder Mertoun was at this time in his 
ordinary state of health, it became necessary that 
his son should intimate to him his intended visit 
to Burgh-Westra. He did so; and his father de- 
sired to know the especial reason of his going thither 
at this particular time. 

“ It is a time of merry-making,” replied the youth, 
“ and all the country are assembled.” 

“ And you are doubtless impatient to add another 
fool to the number. — Go — but beware how. you 
walk in the path which you are about to tread — a 
fall from the cliffs of Foulah were not more fatal.” 

“ May I ask the reason of your caution, sir ? ” re- 
plied Mordaunt, breaking through the reserve which 
ordinarily subsisted betwixt him and his singular 
parent. 

“ Magnus Troil,” said the elder Mertoun, “has two 
daughters — you are of the age when men look upon 
such gauds with eyes of affection, that they may 
afterwards learn to curse the day that first opened 


THE PIKATE. 


163 

their eyes upon heaven ! I bid you beware of them ; 
for, as sure as that death and sin came into the 
world by woman, so sure are their soft words, and 
softer looks, the utter destruction and ruin of all 
who put faith in them.” 

Mordaunt had sometimes observed his father’s 
marked dislike to the female sex, but had never 
before heard him give vent to it in terms so deter- 
mined and precise. He replied, that the daughters 
of Magnus Troil were no more to him than any 
other females in the islands ; they were even of 
less importance,” he said, “ for they had broken off 
their friendship with him, without assigning any 
cause.” 

“ And you go to seek the renewal of it ? ” answered 
his father. “ Silly moth, that hast once escaped the 
taper without singeing thy wings, are you not con- 
tented with the safe obscurity of these wilds, but 
must hasten back to the flame, which is sure at 
length to consume thee ? But why should I waste 
arguments in deterring thee from thy inevitable 
fate ? — Go where thy destiny calls thee.” 

On the succeeding day, which was the eve of the 
great festival, Mordaunt set forth on his road to 
Burgh-Westra, pondering alternately on the injunc- 
tions of Norna — on the ominous words of his father 
— on the inauspicious auguries of Swertha and the 
Eanzelman of Jarlshof — and not without experi- 
encing that gloom with which so many concurring 
circumstances of ill omen combined to oppress his 
mind. 

*Mt bodes me but a cold reception at Burgh- 
Westra,” said he ; “ but my stay shall be the shorter. 
I will but find out whether they have been deceived 
by this seafaring stranger, or whether they have 


THE EIRATE. 


164 

acted out of pure caprice of temper, and love of 
change of company. If the first be the case, I will 
vindicate my character, and let Captain Cleveland 
look to himself; — if the latter, why, then, good- 
night to Burgh-Westra and all its inmates.” 

As he mentally meditated this last alternative, 
hurt pride, and a return of fondness for those to 
whom he supposed he was bidding farewell for 
ever, brought a tear into his eye, which he dashed 
off hastily and indignantly, as, mending his pace, he 
continued on his journey. 

The weather being now serene and undisturbed, 
Mordaunt made his way with an ease that formed 
a striking contrast to the difficulties which he had 
encountered when he last travelled the same route ; 
yet there was a less pleasing subject for comparison, 
within his own mind. 

“My breast,” he said to himself, “was then 
against the wind, but my heart within was serene 
and happy. I would I had now the same careless 
feelings, were they to be bought by battling with 
the severest storm that ever blew across these lonely 
hills!” 

With such thoughts, he arrived about noon at 
Harfra, the habitation, as the reader may remem- 
ber, of the ingenious Mr. Yellowley. Our traveller 
had, upon the present occasion, taken care to be 
quite independent of the niggardly hospitality of 
this mansion, which was now become infamous on 
that account through the whole island, by bringing 
with him, in his small knapsack, such provisions as 
might have sufficed for a longer journey. In cour- 
tesy, however, or rather, perhaps, to get rid of his 
own disquieting thoughts, Mordaunt did not fail to 
call at the mansion, which he found in singulai 


THE PIRATE. 


l6s 

commotion. Triptolemus himself, invested with a 
pair of large jack-boots, went clattering up and 
down stairs, screaming out questions to his sister 
and his serving-woman Tronda, who replied with 
shriller and more complicated screeches. At leugth, 
Mrs. Baby herself made her appearance, her vene- 
rable person endued with what was then called a 
joseph, an ample garment, which had once been 
green, but now, betwixt stains and patches, had be- 
come like the vesture of the patriarch whose name 
it bore — a garment of divers colours. A steeple- 
crowned hat, the purchase of some long-past mo- 
ment, in which vanity had got the better of avarice, 
with a feather which had stood as much wind and 
rain as if it had been part of a seamew’s wing, made 
up her equipment, save that in her hand she held 
a silver-mounted whip of antique fashion. This at- 
tire, as well as an air of determined bustle in the 
gait and appearance of Mrs. Barbara Yellowley, 
seemed to bespeak that she was prepared to take 
a journey, and cared not, as the saying goes, who 
knew that such was her determination. 

She was the first that observed Mordaunt on his 
arrival, and she greeted him with a degree of mingled 
emotion. “ Be good to us ! ” she exclaimed, “ if 
here is not the canty callant that wears yon thing 
about his neck, and that snapped up our goose as 
light as if it had been a sandie-lavrock ! ” The 
admiration of the gold chain, which had formerly 
made so deep an impression on her mind, was 
marked in the first part of her speech, the recollec- 
tion of the untimely fate of the smpked goose was 
commemorated in the second clause. “ I will lay 
the burden of my life,” she instantly added, that 
he is ganging our gate.” 


i66 


THE PIRATE. 


“I am bound for Burgh-Westra, Mrs. Yeliowley/ 
said Mordaunt. 

“And blithe will we be of your company,” she 
added — “ it’s early day to eat ; but if you liked a 
barley scone and a drink of bland — natheless, it is 
ill travelling on a full stomach, besides quelling 
your appetite for the feast that is biding you 
this day; for all sort of prodigality there will 
doubtless be.” 

Mordaunt produced his own stores, and, explain- 
ing that he did not love to be burdensome to them , 
on this second occasion, invited them to partake of 
the provisions he had to offer. Poor Triptolemus, 
who seldom saw half so good a dinner as his guest’s 
luncheon, threw himself upon the good cheer, like 
Sancho on the scum of Camacho’s kettle, and even 
the lady herself could not resist the temptation, 
though she gave way to it with more moderation, 
and with something like a sense of shame. “ She 
had let the fire out,” she said, “ for it was a pity 
wasting fuel in so cold a country, and so she had 
not thought of getting, any thing ready, as they were 
to set out so soon ; and so she could not but say, 
that the young gentleman’s nacket looked very 
good ; and besides, she had some curiosity to see 
whether the folks in that country cured their beef 
in the same way they did in the north of Scotland.” 
Under which combined considerations. Dame Baby 
made a hearty experiment on the refreshments 
which thus unexpectedly presented themselves. 

When their extemporary repast was finished, the 
factor became solicitous to take the road ; and now 
Mordaunt discovered, that the alacrity with which 
he had been received by Mistress Baby was not al- 
together disinterested. Neither she nor the learned 


THE PIRATE. 


167 


Triptolemus felt much disposed to commit them- 
selves to the wilds of Zetland, without the assist- 
ance of a guide ; and although they could have 
commanded the aid of one of their own labouring 
folks, yet the cautious agriculturist observed, that 
it would he losing at least one day’s work ; and his 
sister multiplied his apprehensions by echoing back. 

One day’s work ? — ye may weel say twenty — 
for, set ane of their noses within the smell of a 
kail-pot, and their lugs within the sound of a fiddle, 
and whistle them back if ye can ! ” 

Now the fortunate arrival of Mordaunt, in the 
very nick of time, not to mention the good cheer 
which he brought with him, made him as welcome 
as any one could possibly be to a threshold, which, 
on all ordinary occasions, abhorred the passage of 
a guest; nor was Mr. Yellowley altogether insen- 
sible of the pleasure he promised himself in de- 
tailing his plans of improvement to his young 
companion, and enjoying what his fate seldom 
assigned him — the company of a patient and ad- 
miring listener. 

As the factor and his sister were to prosecute their 
journey on horseback, it only remained to mount 
their guide and companion ; a thing easily accom- 
plished, where there are such numbers of shaggy, 
long-backed, short-legged ponies, running wild upon 
the extensive moors, which are the common pastur- 
age for the cattle of every township, where shel- 
ties, geese, swine, goats, sheep, and little Zetland 
cows, are turned out promiscuously, and often in 
numbers which can obtain but precarious subsist- 
ence from the niggard vegetation. , There is, indeed, 
a right of individual property in all these animals, 
which are branded or tattooed by each owner with 


i68 


THE PIRATE. 


his own peculiar mark; but when any passenger 
has occasional use for a pony, he never scruples to 
lay hold of the first which he can catch, puts on a 
halter, and, having rode him as far as he finds con- 
venient, turns the animal loose to find his way 
back again as he best can ^ — a matter in which the 
ponies are sufficiently sagacious. 

Although this general exercise of property was 
one of the enormities which in due time the factor 
intended to abolish, yet, like a wise man, he scrupled 
not, in the meantime, to avail himself of so gen- 
eral a practice, which, he condescended to allow, was 
particularly convenient for those who (as chanced 
to be his own present case) had no ponies of their 
own on which their neighbours could retaliate. 
Three shelties, therefore, were procured from the 
hill — little shagged animals, more resembling wild 
bears than any thing of the horse tribe, yet pos- 
sessed of no small degree of strength and spirit, and 
able to endure as much fatigue and indifferent usage 
as any creatures in the world. 

Two of these horses were already provided and 
fully accoutred for the journey. One of* them, des- 
tined to bear the fair person of Mistress Baby, was 
decorated' with a huge side-saddle of venerable an- 
tiquity — a mass, as it were, of cushion and padding, 
from which depended, on all sides, a housing of an- 
cient tapestry, which, having been originally intended 
for a horse of ordinary size, covered up the dimi- 
nutive palfrey over which it was spread, from the 
ears to the tail, and from the shoulder to the fetlock, 
leaving nothing visible but its head, which looked 
fiercely out from- these enfoldments, like the he- 
raldic representation of a lion looking out of a bush. 
Mordaunt gallantly lifted up the fair Mistress Yel- 


THE PIRATE. 


169 

lowley, and at the expense of very slight exertion, 
placed her upon the summit of her mountainous 
saddle. It is probable, that, on feeling herself thus 
squired and attended upon, and experiencing the 
long unwonted consciousness that she was attired 
in her best array, some thoughts dawned upon Mis- 
tress Baby’s mind, which checkered, for an instant, 
those habitual ideas about thrift, that formed the 
daily and all-engrossing occupation of her soul. She 
glanced her eye upon her faded Joseph, and on the 
long housings of her saddle, as she observed, with 
a smile, to Mordaunt, that “ travelling was a pleas- 
ant thing in fine weather and agreeable company, 
if,” she added, glancing a look at a place where the 
embroidery was somewhat frayed and tattered, “ it 
was not sae wasteful to ane’s horse-furniture.” 

Meanwhile, her brother stepped stoutly to his 
steed ; and as he chose, notwithstanding the sere- 
nity of the weather, to throw a long red cloak over 
his other garments, his pony was even more com- 
pletely enveloped in drapery than that of his sister. 
It happened, moreover, to be an animal of an 
high and contumacious spirit, bouncing and cur- 
vetting occasionally under the weight of Triptole- 
mus, with a vivacity which, notwithstanding his 
Yorkshire descent, rather deranged him in the 
saddle ; gambols whicli, as the palfrey itself was not 
visible, except upon the strictest inspection, had, at 
a little distance, an effect as if they were the volun- 
tary movements of the cloaked cavalier, without the 
assistance of any other legs than those with which 
nature had provided him ; and, to any who had 
viewed Triptolemus under such a persuasion, the 
gravity, and even distress, announced in his coun- 
tenance, must have made a ridiculous contrast to 


170 


THE PIRATE. 


the vivacious caprioles with which he piaffed along 
the moor. 

Mordaunt kept up with this worthy couple, 
mounted, according to the simplicity of the time and 
country, on the first and readiest pony which they 
had been able to press into the service, with no other 
accoutrement of any kind than the halter which 
served to guide him ; while Mr. Yellowley, seeing 
with pleasure his guide thus readily provided with 
a steed, privately resolved, that this rude custom 
of helping travellers to horses, without leave of the 
proprietor, should not be abated in Zetland, until 
he came to possess' a herd of ponies belonging in 
property to himself, and exposed to suffer in the 
way of retaliation. 

But to other uses or abuses of the country, Trip- 
tolemus Yellowley showed himself less tolerant. 
Long and wearisome were the discourses he held 
with Mordaunt, or (to speak much more correctly) 
the harangues which he inflicted upon him, concern- 
ing the changes which his own advent in these isles 
was about to occasion. Unskilled as he was in the 
modern arts by which an estate may be improved 
to such a high degree that it shall altogether slip 
through the proprietor’s fingers, Triptolemus had 
at least the zeal, if not the knowledge, of a whole 
agricultural society in his own person ; nor was he 
surpassed by any who has followed him, in that 
noble spirit which scorns to balance profit against 
outlay, but holds the glory of effecting a great 
change on the face of the land, to be, like virtue, in 
a great degree its own reward. 

No part of the wild and mountainous region over 
which Mordaunt guided him, but what suggested to 
his active imagination some scheme of improvement 


THE PIRATE. 


171 


and alteration. He would make a road through yon 
scarce passable glen, where at present nothing 
but the sure-footed creatures on which they were 
mounted could tread with any safety. He would 
substitute better houses for the skeoes, or sheds built 
of dry stones, in which the inhabitants cured or man- 
ufactured their fish — they should brew good ale 
instead of bland — they should plant forests where 
tree never grew, and find mines of treasure where 
a Danish skilling was accounted a coin of a most 
respectable denomination. All these mutations, 
with many others, did the worthy factor resolve 
upon, speaking at the same time with the utmost 
confidence of the countenance and assistance which 
he was to receive from the higher classes, and espe- 
cially from Magnus Troil. 

“ I will impart some of my ideas to the poor man,” 
he said, “ before we are both many hours older ; 
and you will mark how grateful he will be to the 
instructor who brings him knowledge, which is bet- 
ter than wealth.” 

“I would not have you build too strongly on 
that,” said Mordaunt, by way of caution ; “ Mag- 
nus Troil’s boat is kittle to trim — he likes his own 
ways, and his country-ways, and you will as soon 
teach your sheltie to dive like a sealgh, as bring 
Magnus to take a Scottish fashion in the place of a 
Norse one ; and yet, if he is steady to his old cus- 
toms, he may perhaps be as changeable as another 
in his old friendships.” 

'' Heus, tu inepte said the scholar of Saint An- 
drews, “ steady or unsteady, what can it matter ? 
— am not I here in point of trust, and in point of 
power ? and shall a Fowd, by which barbarous 
appellative this Magnus Troil still calls himself. 


mt pirate. 


m 

presume to measure judgment and weigh reasons 
with me, who represent the full dignity of the Cham- 
berlain of the islands of Orkney and Zetland ? ” 

“ Still,” said Mordaunt, “ I would advise you not 
to advance too rashly upon his prejudices. Magnus 
Troil, from the hour of his birth to this day, never 
saw a greater man than himself, and it is difficult 
to bridle an old horse for the first time. Besides, 
he has at no time in his life been a patient listener 
to long explanations, so it is possible that he may 
quarrel with your purposed reformation, before you 
can convince him of its advantages.” 

“ How mean you, young man ? ” said the factor. 
“ Is there one who dwells in these islands, who is 
so wretchedly blind as not to be sensible of their 
deplorable defects ? Can a man,” he added, rising 
into enthusiasm as he spoke, “ or even a beast, look 
at that thing there, which they have the impudence 
to call a corn-mill, ^ without trembling to think that 
corn should be intrusted to such a miserable molen- 
dinary ? The wretches are obliged to have at least 
fifty in each parish, each trundling away upon its 
paltry mill-stone, under the thatch of a roof no big- 
ger than a bee-skep, instead of a noble and seemly 
baron’s mill, of which you would hear the clack 
through the haill country, and that casts the meal 
through the mill-eye by forpits at a time ! ” 

“ Ay, ay, brother,” said his sister, “ that’s spoken 
like your wise sell. The mair cost the mair honour 
— that’s your word ever mair. Can it no creep into 
your wise head, man, that ilka body grinds their ain 
nievefu’ of meal in this country, without plaguing 
themsells about barons’ mills, and thirls, and sucken, 


^ Note VI. — Zetland Corn-mills. 


THE PIRATE. 


173 


and the like trade ? How mony a time have I 
heard you bell-the-cat with auld Edie Netherstane, 
the miller at Grindleburn, and wi’ his very knave 
too, about in-town and out-town multures — lock, 
gowpen, and knaveship, (i) and a’ the lave o’t ; and 
now naething less will serve you than to bring in 
the very same fashery on a wheen puir bodies, that 
big ilk ane a mill for themselves, sic as it is ? ” 

“ Dinna tell me of gowpen and knaveship ! ” ex- 
claimed the indignant agriculturist; “better pay 
the half of the grist to the miller, to have the rest 
grund in a Christian manner, than put good grain 
into a bairn’s whirligig. Look at it for a moment. 
Baby — Bide still, ye cursed imp ! ” This interjec- 
tion was applied to his pony, which began to be 
extremely impatient, while its rider interrupted his 
journey, to point out all the weak points of the Zet- 
land mill — “ Look at it, I say — it’s just one degree 
better than a hand-quern — it has neither wheel nor 
trindle — neither cog nor happer — Bide still, there’s 
a canny beast — it canna grind a bickerfu’ of meal 
in a quarter of an hour, and that will be niair like 
a mash for horse than a meltith for man’s use — • 
Wherefore — Bide still, I say — wherefore — where- 
fore — The deil’s in the beast, and nae good, I 
think ! ” 

As he uttered the last words, the shelty, which 
had pranced and curvetted for some time with much 
impatience, at length got its head betwixt its legs, 
and at once canted its rider into the little rivulet, 
which served to drive the depreciated engine he was 
surveying ; then emancipating itself from the folds 
of the cloak, fled back towards its own wilderness, 
neighing in scorn, and flinging out its heels at every 
five yards. 


174 


THE PIRATE. 


Laughing heartily at his disaster, Mordaunt 
helped the old man to arise ; while his sister sar- 
castically congratulated him on having fallen rather 
into the shallows of a Zetland rivulet than the depths 
of a Scottish mill-pond. Disdaining to reply to this 
sarcasm, Triptolemus, so soon as he had recovered 
his legs, shaken his ears, and found that the folds 
of his cloak had saved him from being much wet in 
the scanty streamlet, exclaimed aloud, “ I will have 
cussers from Lanarkshire — brood mares from Ayr- 
shire — I will not have one of these cursed abortions 
left on the islands, to break honest folk’s necks — I 
say. Baby, I will rid the land of them.” 

“Ye had better wring your ain cloak, Triptole- 
mus,” answered Baby. 

Mordaunt meanwhile was employed in catching 
another pony, from a herd which strayed at some 
distance ; and, having made a halter out of twisted 
rushes, he seated the dismayed agriculturist in safety 
upon a more quiet, though less active steed, than 
that which he had at first bestrode. 

But Mr. Yellowley’s fall had operated as a con- 
siderable sedative upon his spirits, and, for the full 
space of five miles’ travel, he said scarce a word, 
leaving full course to the melancholy aspirations and 
lamentations which his sister Baby bestowed on the 
old bridle, which the pony had carried off in its 
flight, and which, she observed, after having lasted 
for eighteen years come Martinmas, might now be 
considered as a castaway thing. Finding she had 
thus the field to herself, the old lady launched forth 
into a lecture upon economy, according to her own 
idea of that virtue, which seemed to include a sys- 
tem of privations, which, though observed with the 
sole purpose of saving money, might, if undertaken 


THE PIRATE. 


175 


upon other principles, have ranked high in the 
history of a religious ascetic. 

She was but little interrupted by Mordaunt, who, 
conscious he was now on the eve of approaching 
Burgh-Westra, employed himself rather in the task 
of anticipating the nature of the reception he was 
about to meet with there from two beautiful young 
women, than with the prosing of an old one, how- 
ever wisely she might prove that small-beer was 
more wholesome than strong ale, and that if her 
brother had bruised his ankle bone in his tumble, 
cumfrey and butter was better to bring him round 
again, than all the doctor’s drugs in the world. 

But now the dreary moorlands, over which their 
path had hitherto lain, were exchanged for a more 
pleasant prospect, opening on a salt-water lake, or 
arm of the sea, which ran up far inland, and was 
surrounded by flat and fertile ground, producing 
crops better than the experienced eye of Triptole- 
mus Yellowley had as yet witnessed in Zetland. 
In the midst of this Goshen stood the mansion of 
Burgh-Westra, screened from the north and east 
by a ridge of heathy hills which lay behind it, and 
commanding an interesting prospect of the lake and 
its parent ocean, as well as the islands, and more 
distant mountains. From the mansion itself, as well 
as from almost every cottage in the adjacent ham- 
let, arose such a rich cloud of vapoury smoke, 
as showed, that the preparations for the festival 
were not confined to the principal residence of 
Magnus himself, but extended through the whole 
vicinage. 

“ My certie,” said Mrs. Baby Yellowley, “ ane wad 
think the haill town was on fire ! The very hill- 
side smells of their wastefulness, and a hungry heart 


176 


THE PIRATE. 


wad scarce seek better kitchen ^ to a barley scone, 
than just to waft it in the reek that’s rising out of 
yon lums.” 

1 What is eat by way of relish to dry bread is called kitchen in 
Scotland, as cheese, dried fish, or the like relishing morsels. 


CHAPTER XIL 


Thou hast described 

A hot friend cooling. Ever note, Lucilius, 

When love begins to sicken and decay, 

It useth an enforced ceremony. 

There are no tricks in plain and simple faith. 

» Julius CcBsar. 

If the smell which was wafted from the chimneys 
of Burgh-Westra up to the barren hills by which 
the mansion was surrounded, could, as Mistress Bar- 
bara opined, have refreshed the hungry, the noise 
which proceeded from thence might have given hear- 
ing to the deaf. It was a medley of all sounds, and 
all connected with jollity and kind welcome. Nor 
were the sights associated with them less animating. 

Troops of friends were seen in the act of arriving — 
their dispersed ponies flying to the moors in every di- 
rection, to recover their own pastures in the best way 
they could ; — such, as we have already said, being 
the usual mode of discharging the cavalry which had 
been levied for a day’s service. At a small but com- 
modious harbour, connected with the house and ham- 
let, those visitors were landing from their boats, 
who, living in distant islands, and along the coast, 
had preferred making their journey by sea. Mor- 
daunt and his companions might see each party 
pausing frequently to greet each other, and strolling 
on successively to the house, whose ever open gate 
received them alternately in such numbers, that it 

VOL. I. — 12 


178 


THE PIRATE. 


seemed the extent of the mansion, though suited to 
the opulence and hospitality of the owner, was scarce, 
on this occasion, sufficient for the guests. 

Among the confused sounds of mirth and welcome 
which arose at the entrance of each new company, 
Mordaunt thought he could distinguish the loud 
laugh and hearty salutation of the Sire of the man- 
sion, and began to feel more deeply than before, the 
anxious doubt, whether that cordial reception, which 
was distributed so freely to all others, would be on 
this occasion extended to him. As they came on, 
they heard the voluntary scraping^ and bravura effu- 
sions of the gallant fiddlers, who impatiently flung 
already from their bows those sounds with which 
they were to animate the evening. The clamour of 
the cook’s assistants, and the loud scolding tones of 
the cook himself, were also to be heard — sounds 
of dissonance at any other time, but which, subdued 
with others, and by certain happy associations, form 
no disagreeable part of the full chorus which always 
precedes a rural feast. 

Meanwhile, the guests advanced, each full of their 
own thoughts. Mordaunt’s we have already noticed. 
Baby was wrapt up in the melancholy grief and sur- 
prise excited by the positive conviction, that so much 
victuals had been cooked at once as were necessary 
to feed all the mouths which were clamouring around 
her — an enormity of expense, which, though she 
was no way concerned in bearing it, affected her 
nerves, as the beholding a massacre would touch 
those of the most indifferent spectator, however well 
assured of his own personal safety. She sickened, 
in short, at the sight of so much extravagance, like 
Abyssinian Bruce, when he saw the luckless min- 
strels of Gondar hacked to pieces by the order of 


THE PIRATE. 


179 


Eas Michael. As for her brother, they being now 
arrived where the rude and antique instruments of 
Zetland agriculture lay scattered in the usual con- 
fusion of a Scottish barn-yard, his thoughts were at 
once engrossed in the deficiencies of the one-stilted 
plough — of the twiscar, with which they dig peats — 
of the sledges, on which they transport commodities 
— of all and every thing, in short, in which the usages 
of the islands differed from those of the mainland of 
Scotland. The sight of these imperfect instruments 
stirred the blood of Triptolemus Yellowley, as that 
of the bold warrior rises at seeing the arms and in- 
signia of the enemy he is about to combat ; and, 
faithful to his high emprise, he thought less of the 
hunger which his journey had occasioned, although 
about to be ‘satisfied by such a dinner as rarely fell 
to his lot, than upon the task which he had under- 
taken, of civilizing the manners, and improving the 
cultivation, of Zetland. 

“Jacta est aha,'" he muttered to himself; “this 
very day shall prove whether the Zetlanders are 
worthy of our labours, or whether their minds are as 
incapable of cultivation as their peat-mosses. Yet 
let us be cautious, and watch the soft time of speech. 
I feel, by my own experience, that it were best to let 
the body, in its present state, take the place of the 
mind. A mouthful of that same roast-beef, which 
smells so delicately, will form an apt introduction to’ 
my grand plan for improving the breed of stock.’’ 

By this time the visitors had reached the low 
but ample front of Magnus Troil’s residence, which 
seemed of various dates, with large and ill-imagined 
additions, hastily adapted to the original building, 
as the increasing estate, or enlarged family, of suc- 
cessive proprietors, appeared to each to demand 


THE PIRATE. 


i8o 

Beneath a low, broad, and large porch, supported by 
two huge carved posts, once the head-ornaments of 
vessels which had found shipwreck upon the coast, 
stood Magnus himself, intent on the hospitable toil 
of receiving and welcoming the numerous guests who 
successively approached. His strong portly figure 
was well adapted to the dress which he wore — a 
blue coat of an antique cut, lined with scarlet, and 
laced and looped with gold down the seams and but- 
ton-holes, and along the ample cuffs. Strong and 
masculine features, rendered ruddy and brown by 
frequent exposure to severe weather — a quantity of 
most venerable silver hair, which fell in unsliorn 
profusion from under his gold-laced hat, and was 
carelessly tied with a ribbon behind, expressed at 
once his advanced age, his hasty, yet well-conditioned 
temper, and his robust constitution. As our travel- 
lers approached him, a shade of displeasure seemed 
to cross his brow, and to interrupt for an instant the 
honest and hearty burst of hilarity with which he 
had been in the act of greeting all prior arrivals. 
When he approached Triptolemus Yellowley, he 
drew himself up, so as to mix, as it were, some share 
of the stately importance of the opulent Udaller with 
the welcome afforded by the frank and hospitable 
landlord. 

“You are welcome, Mr. Yellowley,” was his ad^ 
dress to the factor ; “ you are welcome to Westra 
— the wind has blown you on a rough coast, and 
we that are the natives must be kind to you as we 
can. This, I believe, is your sister — Mistress Bar- 
bara Yellowley, permit me the honour of a neigh- 
bourly salute.” — And so saying, with a daring and 
self-devoted courtesy, which would find no equal 
in our degenerate days, he actually ventured to 


THE EIRATE. 


iSi 

salute the withered cheek of the spinster, who re- 
laxed so much of her usual peevishness of expres- 
sion, as to receive the courtesy with something which 
approached to a smile. He then looked full at Mor- 
daunt Mertoun, and without offering his hand, said, 
• in a tone somewhat broken by suppressed agitation, 
“ You too are welcome, Master Mor daunt.” 

“ Did I not think so,” said Mordaunt, naturally 
offended by the coldness of his host’s manner, “ I 
had not been here — and it is not yet too late to 
turn back.” 

“ Young man,” replied Magnus, “ you know bet- 
ter than most, that from these doors no man can 
turn, without an offence to their owner. I pray you, 
disturb not my guests by your ill-timed scruples. 
When Magnus Troil says welcome, all are welcome 
who are within hearing of his voice, and it is an 
indifferent loud one. — Walk on, my worthy guests, 
and let us see what cheer my lasses can make you 
within doors.” 

So saying, and taking care to make his manner 
so general to the whole party, that Mordaunt should 
not be able to appropriate any particular portion of 
the welcome to himself, nor yet to complain of be- 
ing excluded from all share in it, the Udaller ushered 
the guests into his house, where two large outer 
rooms, which, on the present occasion, served the 
purpose of a modern saloon, were already crowded 
with guests of every description. 

The furniture was sufficiently simple, and had a 
character peculiar to the situation of those stormy 
islands. Magnus Troil was, indeed, like most of 
the higher class of Zetland proprietors, a friend to 
the distressed traveller, whether by sea or land, 
and had repeatedly exerted his whole authority in 


i 82 


THE PIRATE. 


protecting the property and persons of shipwrecked 
mariners ; yet so frequent were wrecks upon that 
tremendous coast, and so many unappropriated art- 
icles were constantly flung ashore, that the interior 
of the house bore sufflcient witness to the ravages 
of the ocean, and to the exercise of those rights 
which the lawyers term Flotsome and Jetsome. The 
chairs, which were arranged around the walls, were 
such as are used in cabins, and many of them were 
of foreign construction ; the mirrors and cabinets, 
which were placed against the walls for ornament 
or convenience, had, it was plain from their form, 
been constructed for ship-board, and one or two of 
the latter were of strange and unknown wood. Even 
the partition which separated the two apartments, 
seemed constructed out of the bulkhead of some large 
vessel, clumsily adapted to the service which it at 
present performed, by the labour of some native 
joiner. To a stranger, these evident marks and 
tokens of human misery might, at the first glance, 
form a contrast with the scene of mirth with which 
they were now associated ; but the association was 
so familiar to the natives, that it did not for a 
moment interrupt the course of their glee. 

To the younger part of these revellers the presence 
of Mordaunt was like a fresh charm of enjoyment. 
All came around him to marvel at his absence, and 
all, by their repeated enquiries, plainly showed that 
they conceived it had been entirely voluntary on 
his side. The youth felt that this general accepta- 
tion relieved his anxiety on one painful point. What- 
ever prejudice the family of Burgh-Westra might 
have adopted respecting him, it must be of a private 
nature ; and at least he had not the additional pain 
of finding that he was depreciated in the eyes of 


THE PIRATE. 


83 


society at large ; and his vindication, when he found 
opportunity to make one, would not require to be 
extended beyond the circle of a single family. This 
was consoling ; though his heart still throbbed with 
anxiety at the thought of meeting with his estranged, 
but still beloved friends. Laying the excuse of his 
absence on his father’s state of health, he made his 
way through the various groups of friends and 
guests, each of whom seemed willing to detain him 
as long as possible, and having, by presenting them 
to one or two families of consequence, got rid of 
his travelling companions, who at first stuck fast 
as burs, he reached at length the door of a small 
apartment, which, opening from one of the large ex- 
terior rooms we have mentioned, Minna and Brenda 
had been permitted to fit up after their own taste, 
and to call their peculiar property. 

Mordaunt had contributed no small share of the 
invention and mechanical execution employed in 
fitting up this favourite apartment, and in disposing 
its ornaments. It was, indeed, during his last resi- 
dence at Burgh- Westra, as free to his entrance and 
occupation, as to its proper mistresses. But now, so 
much were times altered, that he remained with his 
finger on the latch, uncertain whether he should 
take the freedom to draw it, until Brenda’s voice 
pronounced the words, “ Come in, then,” in the tone 
of one who is interrupted by an unwelcome dis- 
turber, who is to be heard and dispatched with all 
the speed possible. 

At this signal Mertoun entered the fanciful cabi- 
net of the sisters, which by the addition of many 
ornaments, including some articles of considerable 
value, had been fitted up for the approaching fes- 
tival. The daughters of Magnus, at the moment of 


THE PIRATE. 


184 

Mordaunt’s entrance, were seated in deep consulta- 
tion with the stranger Cleveland, and with a little 
slight-made old man, whose eye retained all the 
vivacity of spirit, which had supported him under 
the thousand vicissitudes of a changeful and preca- 
rious life, and which, accompanying him in his old 
age, rendered his grey hairs less awfully reverend 
perhaps, but not less beloved, than would a more 
grave and less imaginative expression of counte- 
nance and character. There was even a penetrating 
shrewdness mingled in the look of curiosity, with 
which, as he stepped for an instant aside, he seemed 
to watch the meeting of Mordaunt with the two 
lovely sisters. 

The reception the youth met with resembled, in 
general character, that which he had experienced 
from Magnus himself ; but the maidens could not 
so well cover their sense of the change of circum- 
stances under which they met.. Both blushed, as, 
rising, and without extending the hand, far less offer- 
ing the cheek, as the fashion of the times permitted, 
and almost exacted, they paid to Mordaunt the 
salutation due to an ordinary acquaintance. But 
the blush of the elder was one of those transient 
evidences of flitting emotion, that vanish as fast as 
the passing thought which excites them. In an in- 
stant she stood before the youth calm and cold, re- 
turning, with guarded and cautious courtesy, the 
usual civilities, which, with a faltering voice, Mor- 
daunt endeavoured to present to her. The emotion 
of , Brenda bore, externally at least, a deeper and 
more agitating character. Her blush extended over 
every part of her beautiful skin which her dress 
permitted to be visible, including her slender neck, 
and the upper region of a finely formed bosom. 


THE PIRATE. 


185 

Neither did she even attempt to reply to what share 
of his confused compliment Mordaunt addressed to 
her in particular, but regarded him with eyes, in 
which displeasure was evidently mingled with feel- 
ings of regret, and recollections of former times. 
Mordaunt felt, as it were, assured upon the instant, 
that the regard of Minna was extinguished, but that 
it might be yet possible to recover that of the milder 
Brenda; and such is the waywardness of human 
fancy, that though he had never hitherto made any 
distinct difference betwixt these two beautiful and 
interesting girls, the favour of her, which seemed 
most absolutely withdrawn, became at the moment 
the most interesting in his eyes. 

He was disturbed in these hasty reflections by 
Cleveland, who advanced, with military frankness, 
to pay his compliments to his preserver, having only 
delayed long enough to permit the exchange of the 
ordinary salutation betwixt the visitor and the 
ladies of the family. He made his approach with 
so good a grace, that it was impossible for Mor- 
daunt, although he dated his loss of favour at 
Burgh- Westra from this stranger’s appearance on 
the coast, and domestication in the family, to do 
less than return his advances as courtesy demanded, 
accept his thanks with an appearance of satisfaction, 
and hope that his time had past pleasantly since 
their last meeting. 

Cleveland was about to answer, when he was anti- 
cipated by the little old man, formerly noticed, who 
now thrusting himself forward, and seizing Mor- 
daunt’s hand, kissed him on the forehead ; and then 
at the same time echoed and answered his question 
— “ How passes time at Burgh-Westra ? Was it you 
that asked it, my prince of the cliff and of the scaur ? 


THE PIRATE 


1 86 

How should it pass, but with all the wings that 
beauty and joy can add to help its flight ! ” 

“ And wit and song, too, my good old friend,” said 
Mordaunt, half-serious, half-jesting, as he shook the 
old man cordially by the hand. — “ These cannot 
be wanting, where Claud H^lcro comes ! ” 

“Jeer me not, Mordaunt, my good lad,” replied 
the old man ; “ When your foot is as slow as mine, 

your wit frozen, and your song out of tune ” 

“ How can you belie yourself, my good master ? ” 
answered Mordaunt, who was not unwilling to avail 
himself of his old friend’s peculiarities to introduce 
something like conversation, break the awkward- 
ness of this singular meeting, and gain time for ob- 
servation, ere requiring an explanation of the change 
of conduct which the family seemed to have adopted 
towards him. “ Say not so,” he continued. “ Time, my 
old friend, lays his hand lightly on the bard. Have I 
not heard you say, the poet partakes the immortality 
of his song ? and surely the great English poet, you 
used to tell us of, was elder than yourself when he 
pulled the bow-oar among all the wits of London.” 

This alluded to a story which was, as the French 
term it, Halcro’s cheval de hataille, and any allusion 
to which was certain at once to place him in the 
saddle, and to push his hobby-horse into full career. 

His laughing eye kindled with a sort of enthu- 
siasm, which the ordinary folk of this world might 
have called crazed, while he dashed into the subject 
which he best loved to talk upon. “ Alas, alas, my 
dear Mordaunt Mertoun — silver is silver, and waxes 
not dim by use — and pewter is pewter, and grows 
the longer the duller. It is not for poor Claud 
Halcro to name himself in the same twelvemonth 
with the immortal John Dry den. True it is, as I 


THE PIRATE. 


87 


may have told you before, that I have seen that 
great man, nay I have been in the Wits’ Coffeehouse, 
as it was then called, and had once a pinch out of 
his own very snuff-box. I must have told you all 
how it happened, but here is Captain Cleveland who 
never heard it. — I lodged, you must know, in Rus- 
sel Street — I question not but you know Russel 
Street, Covent Garden, Captain Cleveland ? ” 

“ I should know its latitude pretty well, Mr. 
Halcro,” said the Captain, smiling ; “ but I believe 
you mentioned the circumstance yesterday, and be- 
sides we have the day’s duty in hand — you must 
play us this song which we are to study.” 

“It will not serve the turn now,” said Halcro, 
“ we must think of something that will take in our 
dear Mordaunt, the first voice in the island, whether 
for a part or solo. I will never be he will touch a 
string to you, unless Mordaunt Mertoun is to help 
us out. — What say you, my fairest Night ? — what 
think you, my sweet Dawn of Day ? ” he added, ad- 
dressing the young women, upon whom, as we have 
said elsewhere, he had long before bestowed these 
allegorical names. 

“ Mr. Mordaunt Mertoun,” said Minna, “ has come 
too late to be of our band on this occasion — it is 
our misfortune, but it cannot be helped.” 

“ How ? what ? ” said Halcro, hastily — “ too late 
— and you have practised together all your lives ? 
take my word, my bonny lasses, that old tunes are 
sweetest, and old friends surest. Mr. Cleveland has 
a fine bass, that must be allowed ; but I would have 
you trust for the first effect to one of the twenty 
fine airs you can sing where Mordaunt’s tenor joins 
so well with your own witchery — here is my lovely 
Day approves of the change in her heart.” 


i88 


THE PIRATE. 


“ You were never in your life more mistaken, father 
Halcro,” said Brenda, her cheeks again reddening, 
more with displeasure, it seemed, than with shame. 

“ Nay, but how is this ? ” said the old man, paus- 
ing, and looking at them alternately. “ What have 
we got here ? — a cloudy night and a red morning ? 
— that betokens rough weather. — What means all 
this, young women ? — where lies the offence ? — In 
me, I fear; for the blame is always laid upon the 
oldest when young folk like you go by the ears.” 

“ The blame is not with you, father Halcro,” said 
Minna, rising, and taking her sister by the arm, 
** if indeed there be blame anywhere.” 

“ I should fear then, Minna,” said Mordaunt, en- 
deavouring to soften his tone into one of indifferent 
pleasantry, “ that the new comer has brought the 
offence along with him.” 

“ When no offence is taken,” replied Minna, with 
her usual gravity, “ it matters not by whom such 
may have been offered.” 

“ Is it possible, Minna ! ” exclaimed Mordaunt, 
and is it you who speak thus to me ? — And you 
too, Brenda, can you too judge so hardly of me, yet 
without permitting me one moment of honest and 
frank explanation ? ” 

“ Those who should know best,” answered Brenda, 
in a low but decisive tone of voice, “have told 
us their pleasure, and it must be done. — Sister, I 
think we have staid too long here, and shall be 
wanted elsewhere — Mr. Mertoun will excuse us 
on so busy a day.” 

The sisters linked their arms together. Halcro 
in vain endeavoured to stop them, making, at the 
same time, a theatrical gesture, and exclaiming, 

“ Now, Day and Night, but this is wondrous strange ! ” 


THE PIRATE. 


1S9 

Then turned to Mordaunt Mertoun, and added — 
“ The girls are possessed with the spirit of muta- 
bility, showing, as our master Spenser well saith, 
that 

‘ Among all living creatures, more or lesse, 

Change still doth reign, and keep the greater sway.’ 

Captain Cleveland,” he continued, “ know you any 
thing that has happened to put these two juvenile 
Graces out of tune ? ” 

“He will lose his reckoning,” answered Cleve- 
land, “ that spends time in enquiring why the wind 
shifts a point, or why a woman changes her mind. 
Were I Mr. Mordaunt, I would not ask the proud 
wenches another question on such a subject.” 

“ It is a friendly advice. Captain Cleveland,” re- 
plied Mordaunt, “ and I will not hold it the less so 
that it has been given unasked. Allow me to 
enquire if you are yourself as indifferent to the 
opinion of your female friends, as it seems you 
would have me to be ? ” 

“ Who, 1 ? ” said the Captain, with an air of frank 
indifference, “ I never thought twice upon such a 
subject. I never saw a woman worth thinking twice 
about after the anchor was a-peak — on shore it is 
another thing; and I will laugh, sing, dance, and 
make love, if they like it, with twenty girls, were 
they but half so pretty as those who have left us, 
•and make them heartily welcome to change their 
course in the sound of a boatswain’s whistle. It 
will be odds but I wear as fast as they can.” 

A patient is seldom pleased with that sort of 
consolation which is founded on holding light the 
malady ^of which he complains; and Mordaunt felt 
disposed to be offended with Captain Cleveland, both 


190 


THE PIRATE. 


for taking notice of his embarrassment, and intrud- 
ing upon him his own opinion ; and he replied, 
therefore, somewhat sharply, “ that Captain Cleve- 
land’s sentiments were only suited to such as had 
the art to become universal favourites wherever 
chance happened to throw them, and who could not 
lose in one place more than their merit was sure 
to gain for them in another.” 

This was spoken ironically ; but there was, to con- 
fess the truth, a superior knowledge of the world, 
and a consciousness of external merit at least, about 
the man, which rendered his interference doubly 
disagreeable. As Sir Lucius O’Trigger says, there 
was an air of success about Captain Cleveland which 
was mighty provoking. Young, handsome, and well 
assured, his air of nautical bluntness sat naturally 
and easily upon him, and was perhaps particularly 
well fitted to the simple manners of the remote 
country in which he found himself ; and where, even 
in the best families, a greater degree of refinement 
might have rendered his conversation rather less 
acceptable. He was contented, in the present in- 
stance, to smile good-humouredly at the obvious 
discontent of Mordaunt Mertoun, and replied, “ You 
are angry with me, my good friend, but you can- 
not make me angry with you. The fair hands of 
all the pretty women I ever saw in my life would 
never have fished me up out of. the Roost of Sum- 
burgh. So, pray, do not quarrel with me ; for here" 
is Mr. Halcro witness that I have struck both jack 
and topsail, and should you fire a broadside into 
me, cannot return a single shot.” 

“Ay, ay,” said Halcro, “you must be friends 
with Captain Cleveland, Mordaunt. Never quarrel 
with your friend, because a woman is whimsical, 


THE PIRATE. 


191 


Why, man, if they kept one humour, how the 
devil could we make so many songs on them as we 
do ? Even old Dryden himself, glorious old John, 
could have said little about a girl that was always 
of one mind — as well write verses upon a mill-pond. 
It is your tides and your roosts, and your currents 
and eddies, that come and go, and ebb and flow, (by 
Heaven ! I run into rhyme when I so much as think 
upon them,) that smile one day, rage the next, flat- 
ter and devour, delight and ruin us, and so forth — 
it is these that give the real soul of poetry. Did 
you never hear my Adieu to the Lass of Northma- 
ven — that was poor Bet Stimbister, whom I call 
Mary for the sound’s sake, as I call myself Hacon 
after my great ancestor Hacon Goldemund, or Haco 
with the golden mouth, who came to the island 
with Harold Harfager, and was his chief Scald ? — 
Well, but where was I? — 0 ay — poor Bet Stim- 
bister, she (and partly some debt) was the cause of 
my leaving the isles of Hialtland, (better so called 
than Shetland, or Zetland even,) and taking to the 
broad world. I have had a tramp of it since that 
time — I have battled my way through the world. 
Captain, as a man of mold may, that has a light 
head, a light purse, and a heart as light as them 
both — fought my way, and paid my way — that is, 
either with money or wit — have seen kings changed 
and deposed as you would turn a tenant out of a 
scathold — knew all the wits of the age, and espe- 
cially the glorious J ohn Dryden — what man in the 
islands can say as much, barring lying ? — I had a 
pinch out of his own snuff-box — I will tell you how 
I came by such promotion.” 

But the song, Mr, Halcro,” said Captain Cleve* 
land. 


192 


THE PIRATE. 


“The song?” answered Halcro, seizing the Cap- 
tain by the button, — for he was too much accus- 
tomed to have his audience escape from him dur- 
ing recitation, not to put in practice all the usual 
means of prevention, — “ The song ? Why I gave . 
a copy of it, with fifteen others, to the immortal 
John. You shall hear it — you shall hear them 
all, if you will hut stand still a moment ; and you 
too, my dear boy, Mordaunt Mertoun, I have scarce 
heard a word from your mouth these six months, 
and now you are running away from me.” So say- 
ing, he secured him with his other hand. 

“ Nay, now he has got us both in tow,” said the 
seaman, “ there is nothing for it but hearing him 
out, though he spins as tough a yarn as ever an 
old man-of-war’s-man twisted on the watch at 
midnight.” 

“ Nay, now, he silent, be silent, and let one of us 
speak at once,” said the poet, imperatively ; while 
Cleveland and Mordaunt, looking at each other 
with a ludicrous expression of resignation to their 
fate, waited in submission for the well-known and 
inevitable tale. “ I will tell you all about it,” con- 
tinued Halcro. “ I was knocked about the world 
like other young fellows, doing this, that, and 
t’other for a livelihood ; for, thank God, I could 
turn my hand to any thing — hut loving still the 
Muses as much as if the ungrateful jades had found 
me, like so many blockheads, in my own coach and 
six. However, I held out till my cousin, old Law- 
rence Linkletter, died, and left me the bit of an 
island yonder ; although, by the way, Cultmalindie 
was as near to him as I was ; but Lawrence loved 
wit, though he had little of his own. Well, he left 
me the wee bit island — it is as barren as Parnassus 


THE PIRATE. 


193 


itself. What then ? — I have a penny to spend, a 
penny to keep my purse, a penny to give to the 
poor — ay, and a bed and a bottle for a friend, as 
you shall know, boys, if .you will go back with me 
when this merriment is over. — But where was I in 
my story ? ” 

“ Near port, I hope,” answered Cleveland ; but 
Halcro was too determined a narrator to be inter- 
rupted by the broadest hint. 

“ O ay,” he resumed, with the self-satisfied air 
of one who has recovered the thread of a story, “ I 
was in my old lodgings in Russel Street, with 
old Timothy Tliimblethwaite, the Master Fashioner, 
then the best-known man about town. He made 
for all the wits, and for the dull boobies of fortune 
besides, and made the one pay for the other. He 
never denied a wit credit save in jest, or for the 
sake of getting a repartee ; and he was in corre- 
spondence with all that was worth knowing about 
town. He had letters from Crowne, and Tate, and 
Prior, and Tom Brown, and all the famous fellows 
of the time, with such pellets of wit, that there 
was no reading them without laughing ready to 
die, and all ending with craving a further term for 
payment.” 

“I should have thought the tailor would have 
found that jest rather serious,” said Mordaunt. 

“ Not a bit — not a bit,” replied his eulogist, 
“ Tim Thimblethwaite (he was a Cumberland- man 
by birth) had the soul of a prince — ay, and died 
with the fortune of one ; for woe betide the cus- 
tard-gorged alderman that came under Tim’s goose, 
after he had got one of those letters — egad, he was 
sure to pay the kain ! Why, Thimblethwaite was 
thought to be the original of little Tom Bibber, in 

VQL. I. — 13 


194 


THE PIRATE. 


glorious John’s comedy of the Wild Gallant ; and 
I know that he has trusted, ay, and lent John 
money to boot out of his own pocket, at a time 
’^hen all his fine court friends blew cold enough 
He trusted me too, and I have been two months 
on the score at a time for my upper room. To 
he sure, I was obliging in his way — not that I 
exactly could shape or sew, nor would that have 
been decorous for a gentleman of good descent ; 
but I — eh, eh — I drew bills — summed up the 
books ” 

‘‘ Carried home the clothes of the wits and aider- 
men, and got lodging for your labour ? ” interrupted 
Cleveland. 

“ No, no — damn it, no,” replied Halcro ; “ no 
such thing — you put me out in my story — where 
was I ? ” 

“ Nay, the devil help you to the latitude,” said 
the Captain, extricating his button from the gripe 
of the unmerciful bard’s finger and thumb, “ for I 
have no time to take an observation.” So saying, 
he bolted from the room. 

“ A silly, ill-bred, conceited fool,” said Halcro, 
looking after him ; “ with as little manners as wit 
in his empty coxcomb. I wonder what Magnus 
and these silly wenches can see in him — he tells 
such damnable long-winded stories, too, about his 
adventures and sea-fights — every second word a 
lie, I doubt not. Mordaunt, my dear boy, take 
example by that man — that is, take warning by him 
— never tell long stories about yourself. You are 
sometimes given to talk too much about your own 
exploits on crags and skerries, and the like, which 
only breaks conversation, and prevents other folk 
from being heard. Now I see you are impatient 


THE PIRATE. 


195 


to hear out what I was saying — Stop, whereabouts 
was I?” 

“ I fear we must put it off, Mr. Halcro, until 
after dinner,” said Mordaunt, who also meditated 
his escape, though desirous of effecting it with more 
delicacy towards his old acquaintance than Captain 
Cleveland had thought it necessary to use. 

“Nay, my dear boy,” said Halcro, seeing him- 
self about to be utterly deserted, “ do not you leave 
me too — never take so bad an example as to set 
light by old acquaintance, Mordaunt. I have wan- 
dered many a weary step in my day ; but they 
were always lightened when I could get hold of the 
arm of an old friend like yourself.” 

So saying, he quitted the youth’s coat, and slid- 
ing his hand gently under his arm, grappled him 
more effectually ; to which Mordaunt submitted, a 
little moved by the poet’s observation upon the un- 
kindness of old acquaintances, under which he him- 
self was an immediate sufferer. But when Halcro 
renewed his formidable question, “ Whereabouts 
was I ? ” Mordaunt, preferring his poetry to his 
prose, reminded him of the song which he said he 
had written upon his first leaving Zetland, — a song 
to which, indeed, the enquirer was no stranger, but 
which, as it must be new to the reader, we shall 
here insert as a favourable specimen of the poetical 
powers of this tuneful descendant of Haco the 
Golden-mouthed ; for, in the opinion of many tol- 
erable judges, he held a respectable rank among 
the inditers of madrigals of the period, and was as 
well qualified to give immortality to his Nancies of 
the hills or dales, as many a gentle sonnetteer of 
wit and pleasure about town. He was something 
of a musician also, and on the present occasion 


196 


THE PIRATE. . 


seized upon a sort of lute, and, quitting his victim, 
prepared the instrument for an accompaniment, 
speaking all the while that he might lose no time. 

“ I learned the lute,” he said, “ from the same 
man who taught honest Shadwell — plump Tom, as 
they used to call him — somewhat roughly treated 
by the glorious John, you remember — Mordaunt, 
you remember — 

‘ Methinks I see the new Arion sail, 

The lute still trembling underneath thy nail; 

At thy well sharpen’d thumb, from shore to shore, 

The trebles squeak for fear, the basses roar.’ 

Come, I am indifferently in tune now — what was it 
to be ? — ay, I remember — nay. The Lass of North- 
maven is the ditty — poor Bet Stimbister ! I have 
called her Mary in the verses. Betsy does well 
for an English song ; but Mary is more natural 
here.” So saying, after a short prelude, he sung, 
with a tolerable voice and some taste, the following 
verses : 


MARY. 

Farewell to Northmaven, 

Grey Hillswicke, farewell I 
To the calms of thy haven, 
The storms on thy fell — 
To each breeze that can vary 
The mood of thy main, 

And to thee, bonny Mary ! 

We meet not again. 

Farewell the wild ferry, 
Which Hacon could brave, 
When the peaks of the Skerry 
Were white in the wave. 


THE PIRATE. 


197 


There’s a maid may look over 
These wild waves in vain — 
For the skiff of her lover — 

He conies not again. 


The vows thou hast broke, 

On the wild currents fling them ; 
On the quicksand and rock 
Let the mermaidens sing them; 
New sweetness they’ll give her 
Bewildering strain ; 

But there’s one who will never 
Believe them again. 


O were there an island. 

Though ever so wild, 

Where woman could smile, and 
No man be beguiled — 

Too tempting a snare 

To poor mortals were given, 

' And the hope would fix there, 

That should anchor on heaven ! 

" I see you are softened, my young friend,’* said 
Halcro, when he had finished his song ; “ so are 
most who hear that same ditty. Words and music 
both mine own ; and, without saying much of the 
wit of it, there is a sort of eh — eh — simplicity and 
truth about it, which gets its way to most folk’s 
heart. Even your father cannot resist it — and he 
has a heart as impenetrable to poetry and song as 
Apollo himself could draw an arrow against. But 
then he has had some ill luck in his time with the 
women-folk, as is plain from his owing them such 
a grudge — Ay, ay, there the charm lies — ■ none of 
us but has felt the same sore in our day. But come, 
my dear boy, they are mustering in the hall, men 
and women both — plagues as they are, we should 


198 


THE PIRATE. 


get on ill without them — but before we go, only 
mark the last turn — 

‘ And the hope would fix there,’ — 

that is, in the supposed island — a place which nei- 
ther was nor will be — 

‘ That should anchor on heaven.’ 

Now you see, my good young man, there are here 
none of your heathenish rants, which Rochester, 
Etheridge, and these wild fellows, used to string 
together. A parson might sing the song, and his 
clerk bear the burden — but there is the confounded 
bell — we must go now — but never mind — weTl 
get into a quiet corner at night, and 111 tell you all 
about it.” 


CHAPTER XIII. 


Full in the midst the polish’d table shines, 

And the bright goblets, rich with generous wines ; 

Now each partakes the feast, the wine prepares, 
Portions the food, and each the portion shares ; 

Nor till the rage of thirst and hunger ceased, 

To the high host approach’d the sagacious guest. 

Odyssey. 


The hospitable profusion of Magnus Troil’s board, 
the number of guests who feasted in the hall, 
the much greater number of retainers, attendants, 
humble friends, and domestics of every possible 
description, who revelled without, with the multi- 
tude of the still poorer, and less honoured assist- 
ants, who came from every hamlet or township 
within twenty Iniles round, to share the bounty of 
the munificent Udaller, were such as altogether 
astonished Triptolemus Yellowley, and made him 
internally doubt whether it would be prudent in 
him at this time, and amid the full glow of his hos- 
pitality, to propose to the host who presided over 
such a splendid banquet, a radical change in the 
whole customs and usages of his country. 

True, the sagacious Triptolemus felt conscious 
chat he possessed in his own person wisdom far 
superior to that of all the assembled feasters, to say 
nothing of the landlord, against whose prudence the 
very extent of his hospitality formed, in Yellowley’s 
opinion, sufficient evidence. But yet the Amphi- 


200 


THE PIUATE. 


tryon with whom one dines, holds, for the time at 
least, an influence over the minds of his most dis- 
tinguished guests ; and if the dinner be in good style 
and the wines of the right quality, it is humbling 
to see that neither art nor wisdom, scarce external* 
rank itself, can assume their natural and wonted 
superiority over the distributor of these good things, 
until coffee has been brought in. Triptolemus felt 
the full weight of this temporary superiority, yet 
he was desirous to do something that might vindi- 
cate the vaunts he had made to his sister and his 
fellow-traveller, and he stole a look at them from 
time to time, to mark whether he was not sinking 
in their esteem from postponing his promised lec- 
ture on the enormities of Zetland. 

But Mrs. Barbara was busily engaged in noting 
and registering the waste incurred in such an enter- 
tainment as she had probably never before looked 
upon, and in admiring the host’s indifference to, 
and the guests’ absolute negligence of, those rules 
of civility in which her youth had been brought up. 
The feasters desired to be helped from a dish which 
was unbroken, and might have figured at supper, 
with as much freedom as if it had undergone the 
ravages of half-a-dozen guests ; and no one seemed 
to care — the landlord himself least of all — whether 
those dishes only were consumed, which, from their 
nature, were incapable of re-appearance, or whether 
the assault was extended to the substantial rounds 
of beef, pasties, and so forth, which, by the rules 
of good housewifery, were destined to stand two 
attacks, and which, therefore, according to Mrs. 
Barbara’s ideas of politeness, ought not to have 
been annihilated by the guests upon the first onset, 
but spared, like Outis in the cave of Polyphemus, 


THE PIRATE. 


201 


to be devoured the last. Lost in the meditations to 
which these breaclies of convivial discipline gave 
rise, and in the contemplation of an ideal larder of 
cold meat which she could have saved out of the 
wreck of roast, boiled, and baked, sufficient to have 
supplied her cupboard for at least a twelvemonth, 
Mrs. Barbara cared very little whether or not her 
brother supported in its extent the character which 
he had calculated upon assuming. 

Mordaunt Mertoun also was conversant with far 
other thoughts, than those which regarded the pro- 
posed reformer of Zetland enormities. His seat was 
betwixt two blithe maidens of Thule, who, not 
taking scorn that he had upon other occasions given 
preference to the daughters of the Udaller, were 
glad of the chance which assigned to them the at- 
tentions of so distinguished a gallant, who, as being 
their squire at the feast, might in all probability 
become their partner in the subsequent dance. But, 
whilst rendering to his fair neighbours all the usual 
attentions which society required, Mordaunt kept 
up a covert, but accurate and close observation, upon 
his estranged friends, Minna and Brenda. The 
Udaller himself had a share of his attention ; but in 
him he could remark nothing, except the usual tone 
of hearty and somewhat boisterous hospitality, with 
which he was accustomed to animate the banquet 
upon all such occasions of general festivity. But 
in the differing mien of the two maidens there was 
much more room for painful remark. 

Captain Cleveland sat betwixt the sisters, was 
sedulous in his attentions to both, and Mordaunt 
was so placed, that he could observe all, and hear 
a great deal, of what passed between them. But 
Cleveland’s peculiar regard seemed devoted to the 


202 


THE PIRATE. 


elder sister. Of this the younger was perhaps con- 
scious, for more than once her eye glanced towards 
Mordaunt, and, as he thought, with something in 
it which resembled regret for the interruption of 
their intercourse, and a sad remembrance of former 
and more friendly times ; while Minna was exclu- 
sively engrossed by the attentions of her neighbour ; 
and that it should be so, filled Mordaunt with sur- 
prise and resentment. 

Minna, the serious, the prudent, the reserved, 
whose countenance and manners indicated so much 
elevation of character — Minna, the lover of solitude, 
and of those paths of knowledge in which men walk 
best without company — the enemy of light mirth, 
the friend of musing melancholy, and the frequenter 
of fountain-heads and pathless glens — she whose 
character seemed, in short, the very reverse of that 
which might be captivated by the bold, coarse, and 
daring gallantry of such a man as this Captain Cleve- 
land, gave, nevertheless, her eye and ear to him, as 
he sat beside her at table, with an interest and a gra- 
ciousness of attention, which, to Mordaunt, who well 
knew how to judge of her feelings by her manner, in- 
timated a degree of the highest favour. He observed 
this, and his heart rose against the favourite by 
whom he had been thus superseded, as well as against 
Minna’s indiscreet departure from her own character. 

“ What is there about the man,” he said within 
himself, “more than the bold and daring assump- 
tion of importance which is derived from success in 
petty enterprises, and the exercise of petty despot- 
ism over a ship’s crew ? — His very language is more 
professional than is used by the superior officers of 
the British navy ; and the wit which has excited so 
many smiles, seems to me such as Minna would 


THE PIRATE. 


203 


not formerly have endured for an instant. Even 
Brenda seems less taken with his gallantry than 
Minna, whom it should have suited so little.” 

Mordaunt was doubly mistaken in these his angry 
speculations. In the first place, with an eye which 
was, in some respects, that of a rival, he criticised 
far too severely the manners and behaviour of Cap- 
tain Cleveland. They were unpolished, certainly; 
which was of the less consequence in a country in- 
habited by so plain and simple a race as the ancient 
Zetlanders. On the other hand, there was an open, 
naval frankness in Cleveland’s bearing — much nat- 
ural shrewdness — some appropriate humour — an 
undoubting confidence in himself — and that enter- 
prising hardihood of disposition, which, without any 
other recomniendable quality, very often leads to 
success with the fair sex. But Mordaunt was far- 
ther mistaken, in supposing that Cleveland was likely 
to be disagreeable to Minna Troil, on account of the 
opposition of their characters in so many material 
particulars. Had his knowledge of the world been 
a little more extensive, he might have observed, 
that as unions are often formed betwixt couples- 
differing in complexion and stature, they take 
place still more frequently betwixt persons totally 
differing in feelings, in taste, in pursuits, and in un- 
derstanding ; and it would not be saying, perhaps, 
too much, to aver, that two-thirds of the marriages 
around us have been contracted betwixt persons, 
who, judging a priori, we should have thought had 
scarce any charms for each other. 

A moral and primary cause might be easily as- 
signed for these anomalies, in the wise dispensations 
of Providence, that the general balance of wit, wis- 
dom, and amiable qualities of all kinds, should be 


204 


THE PIRATE. 


kept up through society at large. For, what a world 
were it, if the wise were to intermarry only with 
the wise, the learned with the learned, the amiable 
with the amiable, nay, even the handsome with the 
handsome ? and, is it not evident, that the degraded 
castes of the foolish, the ignorant, the brutal, and 
the deformed, (comprehending, by the way, far the 
greater portion of mankind,) must, when condemned 
to exclusive intercourse with each other, become 
gradually as much . brutalized in person and dispo- 
sition as so many ourang-outangs ? When, there- 
fore, we see the “gentle joined to the rude,” we 
may lament the fate of the suffering individual, but 
we must not the less admire the mysterious dispo- 
sition of that wise Providence which thus balances 
the moral good and evil of life ; — which secures for 
a family, unhappy in the dispositions of one parent, 
a share of better and sweeter blood, transmitted 
from the other, and preserves to the offspring the 
affectionate care and protection of at least one of 
those from whom it is naturally due. Without the 
frequent occurrence of such alliances and unions — 
mis-sorted as they seem at first sight — the world 
could not be that for which Eternal Wisdom has 
designed it — a place of mixed good and evil — a 
place of trial at once, and of suffering, where even 
the worst ills are checkered with something that 
renders them tolerable to humble and patient 
minds, and where the best blessings carry with 
them a necessary alloy of embittering depreciation. 

When, indeed, we look a little closer on the causes 
of those unexpected and ill-suited attachments, we 
have occasion to acknowledge, that the means by 
which they are produced do not infer that complete 
departure from, or inconsistency with, the character 


THE PIRATE. 


205 


of the parties, which we might expect when the re- 
sult alone is contemplated. The wise purposes which 
Providence appears to have had in view, by per- 
mitting such intermixture of dispositions, tempers, 
and understandings, in the married state, are not 
accomplished by any mysterious impulse by which, 
in contradiction to the ordinary laws of nature, men 
or women are urged to an union with those whom 
the world see to be unsuitable to them. The free- 
dom of will is permitted to us in the occurrences of 
ordinary life, as in our moral conduct ; and in the 
former as well as the latter case, is often the means 
of misguiding those who possess it. Thus it usually 
happens, more especially to the enthusiastic and 
imaginative, that, having formed a picture of admi- 
ration in their own mind, they too often deceive 
themselves by some faint resemblance in some ex- 
isting being, whom their fancy, as speedily as gra- 
tuitously, invests with all the attributes necessary to 
complete the heau ideal of mental perfection. No 
one, perhaps, even in the happiest marriage, with 
an object really beloved, ever discovered by expe- 
rience all the qualities he expected to possess ; but 
in far too many cases, he finds he has practised a 
much higher degree of mental deception, and has 
erected his airy castle of felicity upon some rain- 
bow, which owed its very existence only to the 
peculiar state of the atmosphere. 

Thus, Mordaunt, if better acquainted with life, 
and with the course of human things, would have 
been little surprised that such a man as Cleveland, 
handsome, bold, and animated, — a man who had 
obviously lived in danger, and who spoke of it as 
sport, should have been invested, by a girl of Minna’s 
fanciful disposition, with an extensive share of those 


2o6 


THE PIRATE. 


qualities, which, in her active imagination, were held 
to fill up the accomplishments of a heroic character. 
The plain bluritness of his manner, if remote from 
courtesy, appeared at least as widely different from 
deceit ; and, unfashioned as he seemed by forms, he 
had enough both of natural sense, and natural good- 
breeding, to support the delusion he had created, at 
least as far as externals were concerned. It is scarce 
necessary to add, that these observations apply ex- 
clusively to what are called love-matches ; for when 
either party fix their attachment upon the substantial 
comforts of a rental, or a jointure, they cannot be dis- 
appointed in the acquisition, although they may he 
cruelly so in their over-estimation of the happiness 
it was to afford, or in having too slightly anticipated 
the disadvantages with which it was to be attended. 

Having a certain partiality for the dark Beauty 
whom we have described, we have willingly dedi- 
cated this digression, in order to account for a line 
of conduct which we allow to seem absolutely un 
natural in such a narrative as the present, though 
the most common event in ordinary life ; namely, in 
Minna’s appearing to have over-estimated the taste, 
talent, and ability of a handsome young man, who 
was dedicating to her his whole time and attention, 
and whose homage rendered her the envy of almost 
all the other young women of that numerous party. 
Perhaps, if our fair readers will take the trouble to 
consult their own bosoms, they will be disposed to 
allow, that the distinguished good taste exhibited by 
any individual, who, when his attentions would be 
agreeable to a whole circle of rivals, selects one as 
their individual object, entitles him, on the footing 
of reciprocity, if on no other, to a large share of that 
individual’s favourable, and even partial, esteem. At 


THE PIRATE. 


207 


any rate, if the character shall, after all, be deemed 
inconsistent and unnatural, it concerns not us, who 
record the facts as we find them, and pretend no privi- 
lege for bringing closer to nature those incidents 
which may seem to diverge from it ; or for reducing 
to consistence that most inconsistent of all created 
things — the heart of a beautiful and admired female. 

Necessity, which teaches all the liberal arts, can 
render us also adepts in dissimulation ; and Mor- 
daunt, though a novice, failed not to profit in her 
school. It was manifest, that, in order to observe 
the demeanour of those on whom his attention was 
fixed, he must needs put constraint on his own, and 
appear, at least, so much engaged with the damsels 
betwixt whom he sat, that Minna and Brenda should 
suppose him indifferent to what was passing around 
him. The ready cheerfulness of Maddie and Clara 
Groatsettars, who were esteemed considerable for- 
tunes in the island, and were at this moment too 
happy in feeling themselves seated somewhat be- 
yond the sphere of vigilance influenced by their 
aunt, the good old Lady Glowrowrum, met and re- 
quited the attempts which Mordaunt made to be 
lively and entertaining ; and they were soon engaged 
in a gay conversation, to which, as usual on such oc- 
casions, the gentleman contributed wit, or what passes 
for such, and the ladies their prompt laughter and 
liberal applause. But, amidst this seeming mirth, 
Mordaunt failed not, from time to time, as covertly 
as he might, to observe the conduct of the two 
daughters of Magnus ; and still it appeared as if the 
elder, wrapt up in the conversation of Cleveland, did 
not cast away a thought on the rest of the com- 
pany ; and as,if Brenda, more openly as she conceived 
his attention withdrawn from her, looked with an 


2o8 


THE PIRATE. 


expression both anxious and melancholy towards the 
group of which he himself formed a part. He was 
much moved by the diffidence, as well as the trouble, 
which her looks seemed to convey, and tacitly formed 
the resolution of seeking a more full explanation 
with her in the course of the evening. Horn a, he re- 
membered, had stated that these two amiable young 
women were in danger, the nature of which she left 
unexplained, but which he suspected to arise out of 
their mistaking the character of this daring and all- 
engrossing stranger ; and he secretly resolved, that, 
if possible, he would be the means of detecting Cleve- 
land, and of saving his early friends. 

As he revolved these thoughts, his attention to the 
Miss Groatsettars gradually diminished, and perhaps 
he might altogether have forgotten the necessity of 
his appearing an uninterested spectator of what was 
passing, had not the signal been given for the ladies 
retiring from table. Minna, with a native grace, and 
somewhat of stateliness in her manner, bent her 
head to the company in general, with a kinder and 
more particular expression as her eye reached Cleve- 
land. Brenda, with the blush which attended her 
slightest personal exertion when exposed to the eyes 
of others, hurried through the same departing salu- 
tation with an embarrassment which almost amounted 
to awkwardness, but which her youth and timidity 
rendered at once natural and interesting. Again 
Mordaunt thought that her eye distinguished him 
amidst the numerous company. For the first time 
he ventured to encounter and to return the glance ; 
and the consciousness that he had done so doubled 
the glow of Brenda’s countenance, while something 
resembling displeasure was blended with her emotion. 

When the ladies had retired, the men betook 


THE PIRATE. 


209 


themselves to the deep and serious drinking, which, 
according to the fashion of the times, preceded the 
evening exercise of the dance. Old Magnus him- 
self, by precept and example, exhorted them “ to 
make the best use of their time, since the ladies 
would soon summon them to shake their feet.” At 
the same time giving the signal to a grey-headed 
domestic, who stood behind him in the dress of a 
Dantzic skipper, and who added to many other oc- 
cupations that of butler, “ Eric Scambester,” he said, 
“ has the good ship the Jolly Mariner of Canton, got 
her cargo on board ? ” 

“ Chokeful loaded,” answered the Ganymede of 
Burgh-Westra, “ with good Nantz, Jamaica sugar, 
Portugal lemons, not to mention nutmeg and toast, 
and water taken in from the Shellicoat spring.” 

Loud and long laughed the guests at this stated 
and regular jest betwixt the Udaller and his butler, 
which always served as a preface to the introduction 
of a punch-bowl of enormous size, the gift of the 
captain of one of the Honourable East India Com- 
pany’s vessels, which, bound from China homeward, 
had been driven north-about by stress of weather 
into Lerwick-bay, and had there contrived to get rid 
of part of the cargo, without very scrupulously reck- 
oning for the King’s duties. * 

Magnus Troil, having been a large customer, be- 
sides otherwise obliging Captain Coolie, had been re- 
munerated, on the departure of the ship, with this 
splendid vehicle of conviviality, at the very sight of 
which, as old Eric Scambester bent under its weight, 
a murmur of applause ran through the company. 
The good old toasts dedicated to the prosperity of 
Zetland, were then honoured with flowing bumpers. 
“Death to the head that never wears hair!” was. a 

VOL. I. — 14 


210 


THE PIRATE. 


sentiment quaffed to the success of the fishing, as 
propo.sed by the sonorous voice of the Udaller. 
Claud Halcro proposed with general applause, “ The 
health of their worthy landmaster, the sweet sister 
meat-mistresses ; health to man, death to fish, and 
growth to the produce of the ground.” The same 
recurring sentiment was proposed more concisely 
by a whiteheaded compeer of Magnus Troil, in the 
words, “ God open the mouth of the grey fish, and 
keep his hand about the corn ! ” ^ 

Full opportunity was afforded to all to honour 
these interesting toasts. Those nearest the capa- 
cious Mediterranean of punch, were accommodated 
by the Udaller with their portions, dispensed in 
huge rummer glasses by his own hospitable hand, 
whilst they who sat at a greater distance replen- 
ished their cups by means of a rich silver flagon, 
facetiously called the Pinnace ; which, filled occa- 
sionally at the bowl, served to dispense its liquid 
treasures to the more remote parts of the table, and 
occasioned many right merry jests on its frequent 
voyages. The commerce of the Zetlanders with 
foreign vessels, and homeward-bound West India- 
men, had early served to introduce among them the 
general use of the generous beverage, with which the 
Jolly Mariner of Canton was loaded ; nor was there 
a man in the archipelago of Thule more skilled in 
combining its rich ingredients, than old Eric Scam- 
bester, who indeed was known far and wide through 
the isles by the name of the Punch-maker, after the 
fashion of the ancient Norwegians, who conferred 
on Kollo the Walker, and other heroes of their 
strain, epithets expressive of the feats of strength or 
dexterity in which they excelled all other men. 

^ See Hibbert’s Deseriptiou of the Zetland Islands, p. 470. 


THE PIRATE. 


2II 


The good liquor was not slow in performing its 
office of exhilaration, and, as the revel advanced, 
some ancient Norse drinking-songs were sung with 
great effect by the guests, tending to show, that if, 
from want of exercise, the martial virtues of their 
ancestors had decayed among the Zetlanders, they 
could still actively and intensely enjoy so much of 
the pleasures of Valhalla as consisted in quaffing 
the oceans of mead and brown ale, which were 
promised by Odin to those who should share his 
Scandinavian paradise. At length, excited by the 
cup and song, the diffident grew bold, and the mod- 
est loquacious — all became desirous of talking, and 
none were willing to listen — each man mounted 
his own special hobby-horse, and began eagerly 
to call on his neighbours to witness his agility. 
Amongst others, the little bard, who had now got 
next to our friend Mordaunt Mertoun, evinced a pos- 
itive determination to commence and conclude, in 
all its longitude and latitude, the story of his intro- 
duction to glorious John Dry den ; and Triptolemus 
Yellowley, as his spirits arose, shaking off a feeling 
of involuntary awe, with which he was impressed 
by the opulence indicated in all he saw around him, 
as well as by the respect paid to Magnus Troil by 
the assembled guests, began to broach, to the aston- 
ished and somewhat offended Udaller, some of those 
projects for ameliorating the islands, which he had 
boasted of to his fellow-travellers upon their jour- 
ney of the morning. 

But the innovations which he suggested, and the 
reception which they met with at the hand of Mag- 
nus Troil, must be told in the next Chapter. 


CHAPTEE XIV. 


We’ll keep our customs — what is law itself, 

But old establish’d custom? What religion, 

(I mean, with one-half of the men that use it,) 

Save the good use and wont that, carries them 
To worship how and where their fathers worshipp’d ? 

All things resolve in custom — we’ll keep ours. 

Old Play. 


We left the company of Magnus Troil engaged in 
high wassail and revelry. Mordaunt, who, like his 
father, shunned the festive cup, did not partake 
in the cheerfulness which the ship diffused among 
the guests as they unloaded it, and the pinnace, as 
it circumnavigated the table. But, in low spirits 
as he seemed, he was the more meet prey for the 
story-telling Halcro, who had fixed upon him, as 
in a favourable state to play the part of listener, 
with something of the same instinct that directs the 
hooded crow to the sick sheep among the flock, 
which will most patiently suffer itself to be made a 
prey of. Joyfully did the poet avail himself of the 
advantages afforded by Mordaunt’s absence of mind, 
and unwillingness to exert himself in measures of 
active defence. With the unfailing dexterity pecu- 
liar to prosers, he contrived to dribble out his tale 
to double its usual length, by the exercise of the 
privilege of unlimited digressions ; so that the story, 
like a horse on the grand pas, seemed to be advan- 
cing with rapidity, while, in reality, it scarce was 


THE PIRATE. 


213 


progressive at the rate of a yard in the quarter of an 
hour. At length, however, he had discussed, in all 
its various bearings and relations, the history of his 
friendly landlord, the master fashioner in Russel 
Street, including a short sketch of five of his rela- 
tions, and anecdotes of three of his principal rivals, 
together with some general observations upon the 
dress and fashion of the period ; and having marched 
thus far through the environs and outworks of his 
story, he arrived at the body of the place, for so the 
Wits’ Coffeehouse might be termed. He paused on 
the threshold, however, to explain the nature of his 
landlord’s right occasionally to intrude himself into 
this well-known temple of the Muses. 

It consisted,” said Halcro, “ in the two principal 
points, of bearing and forbearing; for my friend 
Thimblethwaite was a person of wit himself, and 
never quarrelled with any jest which the wags 
who frequented that house were flinging about, like 
squibs and crackers on a rejoicing night; and then, 
though some of the wits — ay, and I daresay the 
greater number, might have had some dealings with 
him in the way of trade, he never was the person to 
put any man of genius in unpleasant remembrance 
of such trifles. And though, .my dear young Mas- 
ter Mordaunt, you may think this is but ordinary 
civility, because in this country it happens seldom 
that there is either much borrowing or lending, and 
because, praised be Heaven, there are neither bai- 
liffs nor sheriff-officers to take a poor fellow by the 
neck, and because there are no prisons to put him 
into when they have done so, yet, let me tell you, 
that such a lamblike forbearance as that of my poor, 
dear, deceased landlord, Thimblethwaite, is truly 
uncommon within the London bills of mortality. I 


214 


THE PIRATE. 


could tell you of such things that have happened 
even to, myself, as well as others, with these cursed 
London tradesmen, as would make your hair stand 
on end. — But what the devil has put old Magnus 
into such note ? he shouts as if he were trying his 
voice against a north-west gale of wind.” 

Loud indeed was the roar of the old Udaller, as, 
worn out of patience by the schemes of improve- 
ment which the factor was now undauntedly press- 
ing upon his consideration, he answered him, (to use 
an Ossianic phrase,) like a wave upon a rock, 

“Trees, Sir Factor — talk not to me of trees! I 
care not though there never be one on the island, 
tall enough to hang a coxcomb upon. We will 
have no trees but those that rise in our havens — 
the good trees that have yards for houghs, and stand- 
ing-rigging for leaves.” 

“ But touching the draining of the lake of Brae- 
baster, whereof I spoke to you, Master Magnus 
Troil,” said the persevering agriculturist, “ whilk 
I opine would be of so much consequence, there 
are two ways — down the Linklater glen, or by the 
Scalmester burn. Now, having taken the level of 
both ” 

“ There is a third way, Master Yellowley,” an- 
swered the landlord. 

“ I profess I can see none,” replied Triptolemus, 
with as much good faith as a joker could desire in 
the subject of his wit, “in respect that the hill 
called Braebaster on the south, and ane high bank 
on the north, of whilk I cannot carry the name 
rightly in my head ” 

“ Do not tell us of hills and banks. Master Yel- 
lowley — there is a third way of draining the loch, 
and it is the only way that shall be tried in my day. 


THE PIRATE. 


2IS 

You say my Lord Chamberlain and I are the joint 
proprietors — so he it — let each of us start an equal 
proportion of brandy, lime-juice, and sugar, into the 
loch — a ship’s cargo or two will do the job — let us 
assemble all the jolly Udallers of the country, and 
in twenty-four hours you shall see dry ground where 
the loch of Braebaster now is.” 

A loud laugh of applause, which for a time actu- 
ally silenced Triptolemus, attended a jest so very 
well suited to time and place — a jolly toast was 
given — a merry song was sung — the ship unloaded 
her sweets — the pinnace made its genial rounds — 
the duet betwixt Magnus and Triptolemus, which had 
attracted the attention of the whole company from 
its superior vehemence, now once more sunk, and 
merged into the general hum of the convivial table, 
and the poet Halcro again resumed his usurped 
possession of the ear of Mordaunt Mertoun. 

“ Whereabouts was I ? ” he said, with a tone 
which expressed to his weary listener more plainly 
than words could, how much of his desultory tale 
yet remained to be told. “ 0, I remember — we 
were just at the door of the Wits’ Coffeehouse — 
it was set up by one ” 

“ Nay, but, my dear Master Halcro,” said his 
hearer, somewhat impatiently, “I am desirous to 
hear of your meeting with Dryden.” 

“ What, with glorious John ? — true — ay — where 
was I ? At the Wits’ Coffeehouse — Well, in at the 
door we got — the waiters, and so forth, staring at 
me ; for as to Thimblethwaite, honest fellow, his 
was a well-known face. — I can tell you a story 
about that ” 

“Nay, hut John Dryden?” said Mordaunt, in a 
tone which deprecated further digression. 


THE PIRATE. 


216 

“ Ay, ay, glorious John — where was I? — Well, 
as we stood close by the bar, where one fellow sat 
grinding of coffee, and another putting up tobacco 
into penny parcels — a pipe and a dish cost just a 
penny — then and there it was that I had the first 
peep of him. One Dennis sat near him, who ” 

“Nay, but John Dryden — what like was he?” 
demanded Mordaunt. 

“ Like a little fat old man, with his own grey 
hair, and in a full-trimmed black suit, that sat close 
as a glove. • Honest Thimble thwaite let no one but 
himself shape for glorious John, and he had a slash- 
ing hand at a sleeve, I promise you — But there is 
no getting a mouthful of common sense spoken here 
— d — n that Scotchman, he and old Magnus are at 
it again ! 

It was very true ; and although the interruption 
did not resemble a thunder-clap, to which the for- 
mer stentorian exclamation of the Udaller might 
have been likened, it was a close and clamorous dis- 
pute, maintained by question, answer, retort, and 
repartee, as closely huddled upon each other as the 
sounds which announce from a distance a close and 
sustained fire of musketry. 

“ Hear reason, sir ? ” said the Udaller : “ we will 
hear reason, and speak reason too ; and if reason 
fall short, you shall have rhyme to boot. — Ha, my 
little friend Halcro ! ’ ’ 

Though cut off in the middle of his best story, 
(if that could be said to have a middle, which had 
neither beginning nor end,) the bard bristled up at 
the summons, like a corps of light infantry when 
ordered up to the support of the grenadiers, looked 
smart, slapped the table with his hand, and denoted 
his becoming readiness to back his hospitable land- 


THE PIRATE. 


217 


lord, as becomes a well-entertained guest Trip- 
tolemus was a little daunted at this reinforcement 
of his adversary ; he paused, like a cautious general, 
in the sweeping attack which he had commenced 
on the peculiar usages of Zetland, and spoke not 
again until the Udaller poked him with the insult- 
ing query, “ Where is your reason now, Master Yel- 
lowley, that you were deafening me with a moment 
since ? ” 

“Be but patient, worthy sir,” replied the agri- 
culturist ; “ what on earth can you or any other 
man say in defence of that thing you call a plough, 
in this blinded country ? Why, even the savage 
Highlandmen, in Caithness and Sutherland, can 
make more work, and better, with their gascromh, 
or whatever they call it.” 

“ But what ails you at it, sir ? ” said the Udaller ; 
“ let me hear your objections to it. It tills our land, 
and what would ye more ? ” 

“ It hath but one handle or stilt,” replied Tripto- 
lemus. 

“And who the devil,” said the poet, aiming at 
something smart, “ would wish to need a pair of 
stilts, if he can manage to walk with a single 
one?” 

“ Or tell me,” said Magnus Troil, “ how it were 
possible for Neil of Lupness, that lost one arm by 
his fall from the crag of Nekbreckan, to manage a 
plough with two handles ? ” 

“ The harness is of raw seal-skin,” said Triptolemus. 

“ It will save dressed leather,” answered Magnus 
Troil. 

“It is drawn by four wretched bullocks,” said 
the agriculturist, “ that are yoked breast-fashion ; 
and two women must follow this unhappy instru- 


2I8 


THE PIRATE. 


ment, and complete the furrows with a couple of 
shovels.” • 

“ Drink about, Master Yellowley,” said the Udal- 
ler ; “ and, as you say in Scotland, ‘ never fash your 
thumb.' Our- cattle are too high-spirited to let one 
go before the other ; our men are too gentle and 
well-nurtured to take the working-field without the 
women’s company ; our ploughs till our land — our 
land bears us barley ; we brew our ale, eat our bread, 
and make strangers welcome to their share of it. 
Here’s to you. Master Yellowley.” 

This was said in a tone meant to be decisive of 
the question ; and, accordingly, Halcro whispered to 
Mordaunt, “ That has settled the matter, and now we 
will get on with glorious John. — ; There he sat in 
his suit of full-trimmed black ; two years due was the 
bill, as mine honest landlord afterwards told me, — 
and such an eye in his head ! — none of your burn- 
ing, blighting, falcon eyes, which we poets are apt 
to make a rout about, — but a soft, full, thoughtful, 
yet penetrating glance — never saw the like of it in 
my life, unless it were little Stephen Kleancogg’s, 
the fiddler, at Papastow, who ” 

“ Nay, but John Dryden ? ” said Mordaunt, who, 
for want of better amusement, had begun to take a 
sort of pleasure in keeping the old gentleman to his 
narrative, as men herd in a restiff sheep, when they 
wish to catch him. He returned to his theme, with 
his usual phrase of “ Ay, true — glorious John — 
Well, sir, he cast his eye, such as I have described 
it, on mine landlord, and ‘ Honest Tim,’ said he, 
‘ what hast thou got here ? ’ and all the wits, and 
lords, and gentlemen, that used to crowd round him, 
like the wenches round a pedlar at a fair, they made 
way for us, and up we came to the fireside, where 


THE PIRATE. 


2ig 


he had his own established chair, — I have heard 
it was carried to the balcony in summer, but it was 
by the fireside when 1 saw it, — so up came Tim 
Thimblethwaite, through the midst of them, as bold 
as a lion, and I followed with a small parcel under 
my arm, which I had taken up partly to oblige my 
landlord, as the shop porter was not in the way, and 
partly that I might be thought to have something 
to do there, for you are to think there was no ad- 
mittance at the Wits’ for strangers who had no 
business there. — I have heard that Sir Charles 
Sedley said a good thing about that” 

“ Nay, but you forget glorious John,” said Mor- 
daunt. 

“ Ay, glorious you may well call him. They talk 
of their Blackmore, and Shad well, and such like, — 
not fit to tie the latchets of John’s shoes — ‘Well,’ 
he said to my landlord, ‘ what have you got there ? ’ 
and he, bowing, I warrant, lower than he would to 
a duke, said he had made bold to come and show 
him the stuff which Lady Elizabeth had chose for 
her nightgown. — And which of your geese is that, 
Tim, who has got it tucked under his wing V — ‘He 
is an Orkney goose, if it please you, Mr. Dryden,’ 
said Tim, who had wit at will, ‘ and he hath brought 
you a copy of verses for your honour to look at.’ — 
‘ Is he amphibious ? ’ said glorious John, taking the 
paper, — and methought I could rather have faced 
a battery of cannon than the crackle it gave as it 
opened, though he did not speak in a way to dash 
one neither ; — and then he looked at the verses, and 
he was pleased to say, in a very encouraging way 
indeed, with a sort of good-humoured smile on his 
face, and certainly for a fat elderly gentleman, — 
for I would not compare it to Minna’s smile, oi: 


220 


THE PIRATE. 


Brenda’s, — he had the pleasantest smile I ever saw, 
— ‘ Why, Tim,’ he said, ' this goose of yours will 
prove a swan on your hands.’ With that he smiled 
a little, and they all laughed, and none louder than 
those who stood too far off to hear the jest; for 
every one knew when he smiled there was something 
worth laughing at, and so took it upon trust; and 
the word passed through among the young Tem- 
plars, and the wits, and the smarts, and there was 
nothing but question on question who we were ; 
and one French fellow was trying to tell them it 
was only Monsieur Tim Thimblethwaite ; but he 
made such work with his Dumbletate and Timble- 
tate, that I thought his explanation would have 
lasted ” 

“As long as your own story,” thought Mordaunt ; 
but the narrative was at length finally cut short, by 
the strong and decided voice of the Udaller. 

“I will hear no more on it, Mr. Factor!” he 
exclaimed. 

“ At least let me say something about the breed 
of horses,” said Yellowley, in rather a cry-mercy 
tone of voice. “ Your horses, my dear sir, resemble 
cats in size, and tigers in devilry ! ” 

“For their size,” said Magnus, “they are the 
easier for us to get off and on them — [as Triptole- 
mus experienced this morning, thought Mordaunt 
to himself] — and, as for their devilry, let no one 
mount them that cannot manage them.” 

A twinge of self-conviction, on the part of the 
agriculturist, prevented him from reply. He darted 
a deprecatory glance at Mordaunt, as if for the 
purpose of imploring secrecy respecting his tumble ; 
and the Udaller, who saw his advantage, although 
he was not aware of the cause, pursued it with the 


THE PIRATE. 


221 


high and stern tone proper to one who had all his 
life been unaccustomed to meet with, and unapt to 
endure, opposition. 

“By the blood of Saint Magnus the Martyr,” 
he said, “ but you are a fine fellow. Master Factor 
Yellowley ! You come to us from a strange land, 
understanding neither our laws, nor our manners, 
nor our language, and you propose to become gov- 
ernor of the country, and that we should all be 
your slaves ! ” 

“ My pupils, worthy sir, my pupils ! ” said Yel- 
lowley, “ and that only for your own proper 
advantage.” 

“We are too old to go to school,” said the Zet- 
lander. “ I tell you once more, we will sow and 
reap our grain as our fathers did — we will eat what 
God sends us, with our doors open to the stranger, 
even as theirs were open. If there is aught imper- 
fect in our practice, we will amend it in time and 
season ; but the blessed Baptist’s holyday was made 
for light hearts and quick heels. He that speaks a 
word more of reason, as you call it, or any thing that 
looks like it, shall swallow a pint of sea- water — he 
shall, by this hand ! — and so fill up tho good ship, 
the Jolly Mariner of Canton, once more, for the ben- 
efit of those that will stick by her ; and let the rest 
have a fling with the fiddlers, who have been sum- 
moning us this hour. I will warrant every wench 
is on tiptoe by this time. Come, Mr. Yellowley, no 
unkindness, man — why, man, thou feelest the roll- 
ing of the Jolly Mariner still ” — (for, in truth, 
honest Triptolemus showed a little unsteadiness of 
motion, as he rose to attend his host) — “ but never 
mind, we shall have thee find thy land-legs to reel 
it with yonder bonny belles. Come along, Triptole- 


222 


THE PIRATE. 


mus — let me grapple thee fast, lest thou trip, old 
Triptolemus — ha, ha, ha ! ” 

So saying, the portly though weatherbeaten hulk 
of the IJdaller sailed off like a man-of-war that had 
braved a hundred gales, having his guest in tow like 
a recent prize. The greater part of the revellers 
followed their leader with loud jubilee, although 
there were several stanch topers, who, taking the 
option left them by the Udaller, remained behind 
to relieve the Jolly Mariner of a fresh cargo, amidst 
many a pledge to the health of their absent land- 
lord, and to the prosperity of his roof-tree, with 
whatsoever other wishes of kindness could be de- 
vised, as an apology for another pint-bumper ' of 
noble punch. 

The rest soon thronged the dancing-room, an 
apartment which partook of the simplicity of the 
time and of the country. Drawing-rooms and sa- 
loons were then unknown in Scotland, save in the 
houses of the nobility, and of course absolutely so 
in Zetland ; but a long, low, anomalous store-room, 
sometimes used for the depositation of merchandise, 
sometimes for putting aside lumber, and a thousand 
other purposes, was well known to all the youth of 
Dunrossness, and of' many a district besides, as the 
scene of the merry dance, which was sustained with 
so much glee when Magnus Troil gave his frequent 
feasts. 

The first appearance of this ball-room might have 
shocked a fashionable party, assembled for the 
quadrille or the waltz. Low as we have stated the 
apartment to be, it was but imperfectly illuminated 
by lamps, candles, ship-lanterns, and a variety of 
other candelabra, which served to throw a dusky 
light upon the floor, and upon the heaps of merchan- 


THE PIRATE. 


223 


dise and miscellaneous articles which were piled 
around ; some of them stores for the winter ; some, 
goods destined for exportation ; some, the tribute 
of Neptune, paid at the expense of shipwrecked ves- 
sels, whose owners were unknown; some, articles 
of barter received by the proprietor, who, like most 
others at the period, was somewhat of a merchant 
as well as a landholder, in exchange for the fish, and 
other articles, the produce of his estate. All these, 
with the chests, boxes, casks, &c., which contained 
them, had been drawn aside, and piled one above 
the other, in order to give room for the dancers, 
who, light and lively as if they had occupied the 
most splendid saloon in the parish of. St. James’s, 
executed their national dances with equal grace and 
activity. 

The group of old men who looked on, bore no 
inconsiderable resemblance to a party of aged tri- 
tons, engaged in beholding the sports of the sea- 
nymphs ; so hard a look had most of them acquired 
by contending with the elements, and so much did 
the shaggy hair and beards, which many of them 
cultivated after the ancient Norwegian fashion, give 
their heads the character of these supposed natives 
of the deep. The young people, on the other hand, 
were uncommonly handsome, tall, well-made, and 
shapely; the men with long fair hair, and, until 
broken by the weather, a fresh ruddy complexion, 
which, in the females, was softened into a bloom of 
infinite delicacy. Their natural good ear for music 
qualified them to second to the utmost the exertions 
of a band, whose strains were by no means con- 
temptible ; while the elders, who stood around or 
sat quiet upon the old sea-chests, which served for 
chairs, criticised the dancers, as they compared their 


224 


THE PIRATE. 


execution with their own exertions in former days ; 
or, warmed by the cup and flagon, which continued 
to circulate among them, snapped their fingers, and 
beat time with their feet to the music. 

Mordaunt looked upon this scene of universal 
mirth with the painful recollection, that he, thrust 
aside from his pre-eminence, no longer exercised 
the important duties of chief of the dancers, or office 
of leader of the revels, which had been assigned to 
the stranger Cleveland. Anxious, however, to sup- 
press the feelings of his own disappointment, which 
he felt it was neither wise to entertain nor manly to 
display, he approached his fair neighbours, to whom 
he had been so acceptable at table, with the purpose 
of inviting one of them to become his partner in the 
dance. But the awfully ancient old lady, even the 
Lady Glowrowrum, who had only tolerated the ex- 
uberance of her nieces’ mirth during the time of 
dinner, because her situation rendered it then im- 
possible for her to interfere, was not disposed to 
permit the apprehended renewal of the intimacy 
implied in Mertoun’s invitation. She therefore took 
upon herself, in the name of her two nieces, who sat 
pouting beside her in displeased silence, to inform 
Mordaunt, after thanking him for his civility, that 
the hands of her nieces were engaged for that even- 
ing ; and, as he continued to watch the party at a 
little distance, he had an opportunity of being con- 
vinced that the alleged engagement was a mere 
apology to get rid of him, when he saw the two 
good-humoured sisters join the dance, under the 
auspices of the next young men who asked their 
hands. Incensed at so marked a slight, and unwill- 
ing to expose himself to another, Mordaunt Mer- 
toun drew back from the circle of dancers, shrouded 


THE PIKATE. 


225 


himself amongst the mass of inferior persons who 
crowded into the bottom of the room as spectators, 
and there, concealed from the observation of others, 
digested his own mortification as well as he could — 
that is to say, very ill — and with all the philosophy 
of his age — that is to say, with none at all. 


CHAPTER XV. 


A torch for me — let wantons, light of heart, 

Tickle fhe useless rushes with their heels : 

For I am proverb’d with a grandsire phrase — 
ril be a candle-holder, and look on. 

Romeo and Juliet. 


The youth, says the moralist Johnson, cares not for 
the boy’s hobbyhorse, nor the man for the youth’s 
mistress ; and therefore the distress of Mordaunt 
Mertoun, when excluded from the merry dance, 
may seem trifling to many of my readers, who 
would, nevertheless, think they did well to be 
angry if deposed from their usual place in an as- 
sembly of a different kind. There lacked not amuse- 
ment, however, for those whom the dance did not suit, 
or who were not happy enough to find partners to 
their liking. Halcro, now completely in his element, 
had assembled round him an audience, to whom he 
was declaiming his poetry with all the enthusiasm 
of glorious John himself, and receiving in return the 
usual degree of applause allowed to minstrels who 
recite their own rhymes — so long at least as the 
author is within hearing of the criticism. Halcro’s 
poetry might indeed have interested the antiquary 
as well as the admirer of the Muses, for several of 
his pieces were translations or imitations from the 
Scaldic sagas, which continued to be sung by the 
fishermen of those islands even until a very late pe- 
riod ; insomuch, that when Gray’s poems first found 


THE PIRATE. 




their way to Orkney, the old people recognised at 
once, in the ode of the “ Fatal Sisters,” the Runic 
rhymes which had amused or terrified their infancy 
under the title of the “ Magicians,” and which the 
fishers of North Ronaldshaw, and other remote isles, 
used still to sing when asked for a Norse ditty. ^ 

Half listening, half lost in his own reflections, 
Mordaunt Mertoun stood near the door of the apart- 
ment, and in the outer ring of the little circle formed 
around old Halcro, while the bard chanted to a low, 
wild, monotonous air, varied only by the efforts of 
the singer to give interest and emphasis to particu- 
lar passages, the following imitation of a Northern 
war-song : 

THE SONG OF HAROLD HARFAGER. 

The sun is rising dimly red, 

The wind is wailing low and dread ; 

From his cliff the eagle sallies, 

Leaves the wolf his darksome valleys ; 

In the midst the ravens hover, 

Peep the wild-dogs from the cover, 

Screaming, croaking, haying, yelling. 

Each in his wild accents telling, 

“ Soon we feast on dead and dying, 

Fair-hair’d Harold’s flag is flying.” 

Many a crest in air is streaming. 

Many a helmet darkly gleaming. 

Many an arm the axe uprears. 

Doom’d to hew the wood of spears. 

All along the crowded ranks. 

Horses neigh and armour clanks ; 

Chiefs are shouting, clarions ringing. 

Louder still the bard is singing, 

Gather, footmen , — gather, horsemen, 

To the field, ye valiant Norsemen ! 

t See Note I. — Norse Fragments. 


228 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Halt ye not for food or slumber, 

View not vantage, count not number ; 

Jolly reapers, forward still ; 

Grow the crop on vale or hill, 

Thick or scatter’d, stiff or lithe, 

It shall down before the scythe. 

Forward with your sickles bright, 

Reap the harvest of the fight — 

Onward, footmen, — onward, horsemen, 

To the charge, ye gallant Norsemen ! 

“ Fatal Choosers of the Slaughter, 

O’er you hovers Odin’s daughter ; 

Hear the voice she spreads before ye, — 

Victory, and wealth, and glory ; 

Or old Valhalla’s roaring hail, 

Her ever-circling mead and ale, 

Where for eternity unite 
The joys of wassail and of fight. 

Headlong forward, foot and horsemen. 

Charge and fight, and die like Norsemenl” 

" The poor unhappy blinded heathens ! ” said 
Triptolemus, with a sigh deep enough for a groan ; 
“ they speak of their eternal cups of ale, and I ques- 
tion if they kend how to manage a croft land of 
grain ! ” 

“The cleverer fellows they, neighbour Yellow- 
ley,” answered the poet, “ if they made ale without 
barley.” 

“ Barley ! — alack -a-day ! ” replied the more ac- 
curate agriculturist, “ who ever heard of barley in 
these parts ? Bear, my dearest friend, bear is all 
they have, and wonderment it is to me that they 
ever see an awn of it. Ye scart the land with a 
bit thing ye ca’ a pleugh — ye might as weel give it 
a ritt with the teeth of a redding-kame. 0, to see 
the sock, and the heel, and the sole-clout of a real 


THE PIRATE. 


229 


steady Scottish pleugh, with a chield like a Sanv 
son between the stilts, laying a weight on them 
would keep down a mountain ; twa stately owsen, 
and as many broad-breasted horse in the traces, go- 
ing through soil and till, and leaving a fur in the 
ground would carry off water like a causeyed sy ver ! 
They that have seen a sight like that, have seen 
something to crack about in another sort, than those 
unhappy auld-warld stories of war and slaughter, 
of which the land has seen even but too mickle, for 
a’ your singing and soughing awa in praise of such 
bloodthirsty doings. Master Claud Halcro.” 

“ It is a heresy,” said the animated little poet, 
bridling and drawing himself up, as if the whole 
defence of the Orcadian Archipelago rested on his 
single arm — It is a heresy so much as to name 
one’s native country, if a man is not prepared when 
and how to defend himself — ay, and to annoy an- 
other. The time has been, that if we made not good 
ale and aquavitae, we knew well enough where to find 
that which was ready made to our hand ; but now 
the descendants of Sea-kings, and Champions, and 
Berserkars, are become as incapable of using their 
swords, as if they were so many women. Ye may 
praise them for a strong pull on an oar, or a sure 
foot on a skerry ; but what else could glorious John 
himself say of ye, my good Hialtlanders, that any 
man would listen to ? ” 

"Spoken like an angel, most noble poet,” said 
Cleveland, who, during an interval of the dance, 
stood near the party in which this conversation was 
held. “ The old champions you talked to us about 
yesternight, were the men to make a harp ring — 
gallant fellows, that were friends to the sea, and 
enemies to all that sailed on it. Their ships, I sup- 


230 


THE PIRATE. 


pose, were clumsy enough ; but if it is true that 
they went upon the account as far as the Levant, 
I scarce believe that ever better fellows unloosed a 
topsail.” 

“ Ay,” replied Halcro, “ there you spoke them 
right. In those days none could call their life and 
means of living their own, unless they dwelt twenty 
miles out of sight of the blue sea. Why, they had 
public prayers put up in every church in Europe, 
for deliverance from the ire of the Northmen. In 
France and England, ay, and in Scotland too, for as 
high as they hold their head now-a-days, there was 
not a bay or a haven, but it was freer to our fore- 
fathers than to the poor devils of natives ; and now 
we cannot, forsooth, so much as grow our own barley 
without Scottish help ” — (here he darted a sarcastic 
glance at the factor) — “I would 1 saw the time we 
were to measure arms with them again ! ” 

“ Spoken like a hero once more,” said Cleveland. 

Ah ! ” continued the little bard, “ I would it 
were possible to see our barks, once the water-dra- 
gons of the world, swimming with the black raven 
standard waving at the topmast, and their decks 
glimmering with arms, instead of being heaped up 
with stockfish — winning with our fearless hands 
what the niggard soil denies — paying back all old 
scorn and modern injury — reaping where we never 
sowed, and felling what we never planted — living 
and laughing through the world, and smiling when 
we were summoned to quit it !” 

So spoke Claud Halcro, in no serious, or at least 
most certainly in no sober mood, his brain (never 
the most stable) whizzing under the influence of 
fifty well-remembered sagas, besides five bumpers 
of usquebaugh and brandy ; and Cleveland, between 


THE PIRATE. 


231 


jest and earnest, clapped him on the shoulder, and 
again repeated, “ Spoken like a hero ! ” 

“ Spoken like a fool, I think,” said Magnus Troil, 
whose attention had been also attracted by the 
vehemence of the little bard — “ where would you 
cruize upon, or against whom ? — we are all sub- 
jects of one realm, I trow, and I would have you to 
remember, that your voyage may bring up at Exe- 
cution-dock. — I like not the Scots — no offence, 
Mr. Yellowley — that is, I would like them well 
enough if they would stay quiet in their own land, 
and leave us at peace with our own people, and 
manners, and fashions ; and if they would but abide 
there till I went to harry them like a mad old Ber- 
serkar, I would leave them in peace till the day of 
judgment. With what the sea sends us, and the 
land lends us, as the proverb says, and a set of 
honest neighbourly folks to help us to consume it, 
so help me. Saint Magnus, as I think we are even 
but too happy ! ” 

“ I know what war is,” said an old man, “ and I 
would as soon sail through Sumburgh-roost in a 
cockle-shell, or in a worse loom, as I would venture 
there again.” 

“ And, pray, what wars knew your valour ? ” said 
Halcro, who, though forbearing to contradict his land- 
lord from a sense of respect, was not a whit inclined 
to abandon his argument to any meaner authority. 

“ I was pressed,” answered the old Triton, “ to 
serve under Montrose, when he came here about the 
sixteen hundred and fifty-one, and carried a sort of us 
off, will ye nill ye, to get our throats cut in the wilds 
of Strathnavern ^ {k) — I shall never forget it — 

1 Montrose, in his last and ill-advised attempt to invade Scot- 
Istnd, augmented his small army of Danes and Scotti.sh Royalists. 


232 


THE PIRATE. 


we had been hard put to , it for victuals — what 
would I have given for a luncheon of Burgh-Westra 
beef — ay, or a mess of sour sillocks ? — When our 
Highlandmen brought in a dainty drove of kyloes, 
much ceremony there was not, for we shot and 
felled, and flayed, and roasted, and broiled, as it 
came to every man’s hand ; till, just as our beards 
were at the greasiest, we heard — God preserve us 
— a tramp of horse, then twa or three drapping 
shots, — then came a full salvo, — and then, when 
the oflicers were crying on us to stand, and maist of 
us looking which way we might run away, down 
they broke, horse and foot, with old John Urry, or 
Hurry,^ or whatever they called him — he hurried 
us that day, and worried us to boot — and we be- 
gan to fall as thick as the stots that we were felling 
five minutes before.” 

“ And Montrose,” said the soft voice of the grace- 
ful Minna ; “ what became of Montrose, or how 
looked he ? ” 

“Like a lion with the hunters before him,” an- 
swered the old gentleman ; ‘‘ but I looked not twice 
his way, for my own lay right over the hill.” 

“ And so you left him ? ” said Minna, in a tone 
of the deepest contempt. 

by some bands of raw troops, hastily levied, or rather pressed into 
his service, in the Orkney and Zetland Isles, who, having little 
heart either to the cause or manner of service, behaved but indif- 
ferently when they came into action. 

^ Here, as afterwards remarked in the text, the Zetlander’s 
memory deceived him grossly. Sir John Urry, a brave soldier of 
fortune, was at that time in Montrose’s army, and made prisoner 
along with him. He had changed so often that the mistake is 
pardonable. After the action, he was executed by the Coven 
anters; and 

“ Wind-changing Warwick then could change no more ” 
Strachan commanded the body by which Montrose was routed. * 


THE PIRATE. 


233 


** It was no fault of mine, Mistress Minna,” an- 
swered the old man, somewhat out of countenance ; 
“ but I was there with no choice of my own ; and, 
besides, what good could I have* done? — all the 
rest were running like sheep, and why should I 
have staid?” 

“ You might have died with him,” said Minna. 

“ And lived with him to all eternity, in immortal 
verse ! ” added Claud Halcro. 

“ I thank you. Mistress Minna,” replied the plain- 
dealing Zetlander; “and I thank you, my old friend 
Claud ; — but I would rather drink both your 
healths in this good bicker of ale, like a living man 
as I am, than that you should be making songs in 
my honour, for having died forty or fifty years 
agone. But what signified it, — run or fight, ’twas 
all one ; — they took Montrose, poor fellow, for all 
his doughty deeds, and they took me that did no 
doughty deeds at all ; and they hanged him, poor 
man, and as for me ” 

“I trust in Heaven they flogged and pickled 
you,” said Cleveland, worn out of patience with the 
dull narrative of the peaceful Zetlander’s poltroon- 
ery, of which he seemed so wondrous little ashamed. 

“ Flog horses, and pickle beef,” said Magnus ; 
“ Why, you have not the vanity to think, that, with 
all your quarterdeck airs, you will make poor old 
neighbour Haagen ashamed that he was not killed 
some scores of years since ? You have looked on 
death yourself, my doughty young friend, but it was 
with the eyes of a young man who wishes to be 
thought of ; but we are a peaceful people, — peace- 
ful, that is, as long as any one should be peaceful, 
and that is till some one has the impudence to wrong 
us, or our neighbours ; and then, perhaps, they may 


234 


THE PIRATE. 


not find our northern blood much cooler in our veins 
than was that of the old Scandinavians that gave 
us our names and lineage. — Get ye along, get ye 
along to the sword-dance, ^ that the strangers that 
are amongst us may see that our hands and our 
weapons are not altogether unacquainted even yet.” 

A dozen cutlasses, selected hastily from an old 
arm-chest, and whose rusted hue bespoke how sel- 
dom they left the sheath, armed the same number 
of young Zetlanders, with whom mingled six maid- 
ens, led by Minna Troil; and the minstrelsy in- 
stantly commenced a tune appropriate to the ancient 
Norwegian war-dance, the evolutions of which are 
perhaps still practised in those remote islands. 

The first movement was graceful and majestic, 
the youths holding their swords erect, and without 
much gesture ; but the tune, and the corresponding 
motions of the dancers, became gradually more and 
more rapid, — they clashed their swords together, in 
measured time, with a spirit which gave the exer- 
cise a dangerous appearance in the eye of the spec- 
tator, though the firmness, justice, and accuracy, 
with which the dancers kept time with the stroke 
of their weapons, did, in truth, ensure its safety. 
The most singular part of the exhibition was the 
courage exhibited by the female performers, who 
now, surrounded by the swordsmen, seemed like 
the Sabine maidens in the hands of their Roman 
lovers ; now, moving under the arch of steel which 
the young men had formed, by crossing their weapons 
over the heads of their fair partners, resembled 
the band of Amazons when they first joined in 
the Pyrrhic dance with the followers of Theseus. 
But by far the most striking and appropriate figure 
1 Note Vll. — The ISword-Dauce. (/) 






THE PIRATE. 


235 


was that of Minna Troil, whom Halcro had long 
since entitled the Queen of Swords, and who, in- 
deed, moved amidst the swordsmen with an air, 
which seemed to hold all the drawn blades as the 
proper accompaniments of her person, and the im- 
plements of her pleasure. And when the mazes of 
the dance became more intricate, when the close 
and continuous clash of the weapons made some of 
her companions shrink, and show signs of fear, her 
cheek, her lip, and her eye, seemed rather to an- 
nounce, that, at the moment when the weapons 
flashed fastest, and rung sharpest around her, she 
was most completely self-possessed, and in her own 
element. Last of all, when the music had ceased, 
and she remained for an instant upon the floor by 
herself, as the rule of the dance required, the swords- 
men and maidens, who departed from around her, 
seemed the guards and the train of some princess, 
who, dismissed by her signal, were leaving her for 
a time to solitude. Her own look and attitude, 
wrapped, as she probably was, in some vision of the 
imagination, corresponded admirably with the ideal 
dignity which the spectators ascribed to her; but, 
almost immediately recollecting herself, she blushed, 
as if conscious she had been, though but for an 
instant, the object of undivided attention, and gave 
her hand gracefully to Cleveland, who, though he 
had not joined in the dance, assumed the duty of 
conducting her to her seat. 

As they passed, Mordaunt Mertoun might ob- 
serve that Cleveland whispered into Minna’s ear, 
and that her brief reply was accompanied with even 
more discomposure of countenance than she had 
manifested when encountering the gaze of the whole 
assembly. Mordaunt’s suspicions were strongly 




THE PIRATE. 


awakened by what he observed, for he knew Min- 
na’s character well, and with what equanimity and 
indifference she was in the custom of receiving the 
usual compliments and gallantries with which her 
beauty and her situation rendered her sufficiently 
familiar. 

“ Can it be possible she really loves this stran- 
ger?” was the unpleasant thought that instantly 
shot across Mordaunt’s mind ; — “ And if she does, 
what is my interest in the matter ? ” was the second ; 
and which was quickly followed by the reflection, 
that though he claimed no interest at any time but 
as a friend, and though that interest was now with- 
drawn, he was still, in consideration of their former 
intimacy, entitled both to be sorry and angry at her 
for throwing away her affections on one he judged 
unworthy of her. In this process of reasoning, it 
is probable that a little mortified vanity, or some 
indescribable shade of selfish regret, might be en- 
deavouring to assume the disguise of disinterested 
generosity; but there is so much of base alloy in 
our very best (unassisted) thoughts, that it is mel- 
ancholy work to criticise too closely the motives of 
our most worthy actions ; at least we would recom- 
mend to every one to let those of his neighbours 
pass current, however narrowly he may examine the 
purity of his own. 

The sword-dance was succeeded by various other 
specimens of the same exercise, and by songs, to 
which the singers lent their whole soul, while the 
audience were sure, as occasion offered, to unite in 
some favourite chorus. It is upon such occasions 
that music, though of a simple and even rude char- 
acter, finds its natural empire over the generous 
bosom, and produces that strong excitement which 


THE PIRATE. 


237 


cannot be attained by the most learned compositions 
of the first masters, which are caviare to the com- 
mon ear, although, doubtless, they afford a delight, 
exquisite in its kind, to those whose natural capa- 
city and education have enabled them to compre- 
hend and relish those difficult and complicated 
combinations of harmony. 

It was about midnight when a knocking at the 
door of the mansion, with the sound of the Gue and 
the Langspiely announced, by their tinkling chime, 
the arrival of fresh revellers, to whom, according 
to the hospitable custom of the country, the apart- 
ments were instantly thrown open. 


CHAPTEE XVI. 


- My mind misgives, 

Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars. 
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date 
With this night’s revels. 

Romeo and Juliet. 


The new-comers were, according to the frequent 
custom of such frolickers all over the world, dis- 
guised in a sort of masquing habits, and designed to 
represent the Tritons and Mermaids, with whom 
ancient tradition and popular belief have peopled the 
northern seas. The former, called by Zetlanders of 
that time, Shoupeltins, were represented by young 
men grotesquely habited, with false hair, and beards 
made of flax, and chaplets composed of sea-ware in- 
terwoven with shells, and other marine productions, 
with which also were decorated their light-blue or 
greenish mantles of wadmaal, repeatedly before- 
mentioned. They had fish-spears, and other em- 
blems of their assumed quality, amongst which the 
classical taste of Claud Halcro, by whom the masque 
was arranged, had not forgotten the conch-shells, 
which were stoutly and hoarsely winded, from time 
to time, by one or two of the aquatic deities, to the 
great annoyance of all who stood near them. 

The Nereids and Water-nymphs who attended 
on this occasion, displayed, as usual, a little more 
taste and ornament than was to be seen amongst 


THE PIRATE. 


239 


their male attendants. Fantastic garments of green 
silk, and other materials of superior cost and fashion, 
had been contrived, so as to imitate their idea of the 
inhabitants of the waters, and, at the same time, to 
show the shape and features of the fair wearers to 
the best advantage. The bracelets and shells, which 
adorned the neck, arms, and ankles of the pretty 
Mer maidens, were, in some cases, intermixed with 
real pearls ; and the appearance, upon the whole, 
was such as might have done no discredit to the court 
of Amphitrite, especially when the long bright locks, 
blue eyes, fair complexions, and pleasing features of 
the maidens of Thule, were taken into considera- 
tion. We do not indeed pretend to aver, that any of 
these seeming Mermaids had so accurately imitated 
the real siren, as commentators have supposed 
those attendant on Cleopatra did, who, adopting 
the fish’s train of their original, were able, never- 
theless, to make their “bends,” or “ends,” (said 
commentators cannot tell which,) “ adornings.” ^ 
Indeed, had they not left their extremities in their 
natural state, it would have been impossible for 
the Zetland sirens to have executed the very pretty 
dance, with which they rewarded the company 
for the ready admission which had been granted to 
them. 

It was soon discovered that these masquers were 
no strangers, but a part of the guests, who, stealing 
out a little time before, had thus disguised them- 
selves, in order to give variety to the mirth of the 
evening. The muse of Claud Halcro, always active 
on such occasions, had supplied them with an ap- 
propriate song, of which we may give the follow- 

1 See some admirable discussion on this passage, in the Vari- 
orum Shakspeare. 


240 


THE PIRATE. 


ing specimen. The song was alternate betwixt a 
Nereid or Mermaid, and a Merman or Triton — • 
the males and females on either part forming a 
semi-chorus, which accompanied and bore burden 
to the principal singer. 


I. 


MERMAID. 

Fathoms deep beneath the wave, 
Stringing beads of glistering pearl, 
Singing the achievements brave 
Of many an old Norwegian earl ; 
Dwelling where the tempest’s raving 
Falls as light upon our ear, 

As the sigh of lover, craving 
Pity from his lady dear, 

Children of wild Thule, we, 

From the deep caves of the sea. 

As the lark springs from the lea. 
Hither come, to share your glee. 


II. 

MERMAN. 

From reining of the water-horse, 

That bounded till the waves were foaniing. 
Watching the infant tempest’s course. 
Chasing the sea-snake in his roaming; 
From winding charge-notes on the shell, 
When the huge whale and sword-fish duel, 
Or tolling shroudless seamen’s knell. 

When the winds and waves ar-e cruel ; 
Children of wild Thule, we 
Have plough’d such furrows on the sea 
As the steer draws on the lea. 

And hither we come to share your glee. 


THE PIRATE. 


241 


III. 

MERMAIDS AND MERMEN. 

We heard you in our twilight caves, 

A hundred fathom deep below, 

For notes of joy can pierce the waves, 

That drown each sound of war and woe. 

Those who dwell beneath the sea 
Love the sons of Thule well ; 

Thus, to aid your mirth, bring we 
Dance, and song, and sounding shell. 

Children of dark Thule, know. 

Those who dwell by haaf and voe. 

Where your daring shallops row, 

Come to share the festal show. 

The final chorus was borne by the whole voices, 
excepting those carrying the conch-shells, who had 
been trained to blow them in a sort of rude accom- 
paniment, which had a good effect. The poetry, as 
well as the performance of the masquers, received 
great applause from all who pretended to be judges 
of such matters; but above all, from Triptolemus 
Yellowley, who, his ear having caught the agricul- 
tural sounds of plough and furrow, and his brain 
being so well drenched that it could only construe 
the words in their most literal acceptation, declared 
roundly, and called Alordaunt to bear witness, that, 
though it was a shame to waste so much good lint 
as went to form the Tritons’ beards and periwigs, 
the song contained the only words of common sense 
which he had heard all that long day. 

But Mordaunt had no time to answer the appeal, 
being engaged in attending with the utmost vigi 
lance to the motions of one of the female masquers, 
yoL. I. — 16 


242 


THE PIRATE. 


who had given him a private signal as they entered, 
which induced him, though uncertain who she might 
prove to be, to expect some communication from 
her of importance. The siren who had so boldly 
touched his arm, and had accompanied the gesture 
with an expression of eye which bespoke his atten- 
tion, was disguised with a good deal more care than 
her sister-masquers, her mantle being loose, and 
wide enough to conceal her shape completely, and 
her face hidden beneath a silk mask. He observed 
that she gradually detached herself from the rest 
of the masquers, and at length placed herself, as if 
for the advantage of the air, near the door of a 
chamber which remained open, looked earnestly at 
him again, and then taking an opportunity, when 
the attention of the company was fixed upon the 
rest of her party, she left the apartment. 

Mordaunt did not hesitate instantly to follow his 
mysterious guide, for such we may term the mas- 
quer, as she paused to let him see the direction she 
was about to take, and then walked swiftly towards 
the shore of the voe, or salt-water lake, now lying 
full before them, its small summer-waves glistening 
and rippling under the influence of a broad moon- 
light, which, added to the strong twilight of those 
regions during the summer solstice, left no reason 
to regret the absence of the sun, the path of whose 
setting was still visible on the waves of the west, 
while the horizon on the east side was already 
beginning to glimmer with the lights of dawn. 

Mordaunt had therefore no difficulty in keeping 
sight of his disguised guide, as she tripped it over 
height and hollow to the sea-side, and, winding 
among the rocks, led the way to the spot where his 
own labours, during the time of his former intimacy 


THE PIRATE. 


243 


at Burgh- Westra, had constructed a sheltered and 
solitary seat, where the daughters of Magnus were 
accustomed to spend, when the weather was suit- 
able, a good deal of their time. Here, then, was 
to be the place of explanation ; for the masquer 
stopped, and, after a moment’s hesitation, sat down 
on the rustic settle. But, from the lips of whom 
was he to receive it ? Horna had first occurred to 
him ; but her tall figure and slow majestic step 
were entirely different from the size and gait of 
the more fairy-formed siren, who had preceded 
him with as light a trip as if she had been a real 
Nereid, who, having remained too late upon the 
shore, was, under the dread of Amphitrite’s displea- 
sure, hastening to regain her native element. Since 
it was not Norna, it could be only, he thought, 
Brenda, who thus singled him out ; and when she 
had seated herself upon the bench, and taken the 
mask from her face, Brenda it accordingly proved 
to be. Mordaunt had certainly done nothing to 
make him dread her presence ; and yet, such is 
the influence of bashfulness over the ingenuous 
youth of both sexes, that he experienced all the 
embarrassment of one who finds himself unexpect- 
edly placed before a person who is justly offended 
with him. Brenda felt no less embarrassment ; but 
as she had sought this interview, and was sensible 
it must be a brief one, she was compelled, in spite 
of herself, to begin the conversation. 

“Mordaunt,” she said, with a hesitating voice; 
then correcting herself, she proceeded — “ You must 
be surprised, Mr. Mertoun, that I should have taken 
this uncommon freedom.” 

“It was not till this morning, Brenda,” replied 
Mordaunt, “that any mark of friendship or inti- 


244 


THE PIRATE. 


macy from you or from your sister could have sur- 
prised me. I am far more astonished that you 
should shun me without reason for so many hours, 
than that you should now allow me an interview. 
In the name of Heaven, Brenda, in what have 
I offended you? or why are we on these unusual 
terms ? ” 

“ May it not he enough to say,” replied Brenda, 
looking downward, “ that it is my father’s pleasure ? ” 

“ No, it is not enough,” returned Mertoun. “ Your 
father cannot have so suddenly altered his whole 
thoughts of me, and his whole actions towards me, 
without acting under the influence of some strong 
delusion. I ask you but to explain of what nature 
it is ; for I will be contented to be lower in your 
esteem than the meanest hind in these islands, if 
I cannot show that his change of opinion is only 
grounded upon some infamous deception, or some 
extraordinary mistake.” 

“ It may be so,” said Brenda — “I hope it is so 
— that I do hope it is so, my desire to see you thus 
in private may well prove to you. But it is diffi- 
cult — in short, it is impossible for me to explain 
to you the cause of my father’s resentment. Norna 
has spoken with him concerning it boldly, and I 
fear they parted in displeasure ; and you well know 
no light matter could cause that.” 

“ I have observed,” said Mordaunt, that your 
father is most attentive to Norna’s counsel, and 
more complaisant to her peculiarities than to those 
of others — this I have observed, though he is no 
willing believer in the supernatural qualities to 
which she lays claim.” 

“They are related distantly,” answered Brenda, 

’* and were friends in youth — nay, as I have heard, 


THE HRATE. 


245 

it was once supposed they would have been mar- 
ried ; but Norna’s peculiarities showed themselves 
immediately on her father’s death, and there was 
an end of that matter, if ever there was any thing 
in it. But it is certain my father regards her with 
much interest ; and it is, I fear, a sign how deepl} 
his prejudices respecting you must be rooted, since 
they have in some degree quarrelled on your 
account.” 

“ Now, blessings upon you, Brenda, that you 
have called them prejudices,” said Mertoun, warmly 
and hastily — “a thousand blessings on you ! You 
were ever gentle-hearted — you could not have 
maintained even the show of unkindness long.” 

“It was indeed but a show,” said Brenda, soft- 
ening gradually into the familiar tone in which they 
had conversed from infancy ; “ I could never think, 
Mordaunt, — never, that is, seriously believe, that 
you could say aught unkind of Minna or of me.” 

“ And who dares to say I have ? ” said Mordaunt, 
giving way to the natural impetuosity of his dispo- 
sition — “ Who dares to say that I have, and ven- 
tures at the same time to hope that I will suffer his 
tongue to remain in safety betwixt his jaws ? By 
Saint Magnus the Martyr, I will feed the hawks 
with it ! ” 

“ Nay, now,” said Brenda, “ your anger only ter- 
rifies me, and will force me to leave you.” 

“ Leave me,” said he, “ without telling me either 
the calumny, or the name of the villainous calum- 
niator ! ” 

“ 0, there are more than one,” answered Brenda, 
“ that have possessed my father with an opinion — 
which I cannot myself tell you — but there are 
more than one who say ” 


246 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Were they hundreds, Brenda, I will do no less 
to them than I have said — Sacred Martyr ! — to 
accuse me of speaking unkindly of those whom I 
most respected and valued under Heaven — I will 
back to the apartment this instant, and your father 
shall do me right before all the world.” 

“ Do not go, for the love of Heaven ! ” said Brenda ; 
“ do not go, as you would not render me the most 
unhappy wretch in existence ! ” 

“ Tell me then, at least, if I guess aright,” said 
Mordaunt, “when I name this Cleveland for one 
of those who have slandered me ? ” 

“Ho, no,” said Brenda, vehemently, “you run 
from one error into another more dangerous. You 
say you are my friend : — I am willing to be yours : 
— be but still for a moment, and hear what I have 
to say ; — our interview has lasted but too long al- 
ready, and every additional moment brings addi- 
tional danger with it.” 

“ Tell me, then,” said Mertoun, much softened 
by the poor girl’s extreme apprehension and dis- 
tress, “ what it is that you require of me ; and be- 
lieve me, it is impossible for you to ask aught that 
I will not do my very uttermost to comply with.” 

“ Well, then — this Captain,” said Brenda, “ this 
Cleveland ” 

“ I knew it, by Heaven ! ” said Mordaunt ; “ my 
mind assured me that that fellow was, in one way 
or other, at the bottom of all this mischief and 
misunderstanding ! ” 

“ If you cannot be silent, and patient, for an in- 
stant,” replied Brenda, “ I must instantly quit you : 
what I meant to say had no relation to you, but to 
another, — in one word, to my sister Minna. I 
have nothing to say concerning her dislike to you, 


THE PIRATE. 


247 


but an anxious tale to tell concerning his attention 
to her.” 

“ It is obvious, striking, and marked,” said Mor- 
daunt ; “ and, unless my eyes deceive me, it is received 
as welcome, if, indeed, it is not returned.” 

“ That is the very cause of my fear,” said Brenda. 
“ I, too, was struck with the external appearance, 
frank manners, and romantic conversation of this 
man.” 

“ His appearance ! ” said Mordaunt ; “ he is stout 
and well- featured enough, to be sure ; but, as old 
Sinclair of Quendale said to the Spanish admiral, 
‘Farcie on his face! I have seen many a fairer 
hang on the Borough-moor.’ — From his manners, 
he might be captain of a privateer ; and by his con- 
versation, the trumpeter to his own puppetshow ; 
for he speaks of little else than his own exploits.” 

“You are mistaken,” answered Brenda ; “ he 
speaks but too well on all that he has seen and 
learned ; besides, he has really been in many distant 
countries, and in many gallant actions, and he can 
tell them with as much spirit as modesty. You 
would think you saw the flash and heard the re- 
port of the guns. And he has other tones of talking 
too — about the delightful trees and fruits of dis- 
tant climates; and how the people wear no dress, 
through the whole year, half so warm as our sum- 
mer gowns, and, indeed, put on little except cambric 
and muslin.” 

“ Upon my word, Brenda, he does seem to under- 
stand the business of amusing young ladies,” replied 
Mordaunt. 

“ He does, indeed,” said Brenda, with great sim- 
plicity. “I assure you that, at first, I liked him 
better than Minna did; and yet, though she is so 


THE PIRATE. 


248 

much cleverer than I am, I know more of the world 
than she does ; for I have seen more of cities, having 
been once at Kirkwall ; besides that I was thrice 
at Lerwick, when the Dutch ships were there, and 
so I should not be very easily deceived in people.” 

“ And pray, Brenda,” said Mertoun, “ what was it 
that made you think less favourably of this young 
fellow, who seems to be so captivating ? ” 

“ Why,” said Brenda, after a moment’s reflection, 
at first he was much livelier ; and the stories he 
told were not quite so melancholy, or so terrible ; 
and he laughed and danced more.” 

“ And, perhaps, at that time, danced oftener with 
Brenda than with her sister ? ” added Mordaunt. 

“No — I am not sure of that,” said Brenda; 
“ and yet, to speak plain, I could have no suspicion 
of him at all while he was attending quite equally 
to us both ; for you know that then he could have 
been no more to us than yourself, Mordaunt Mer- 
toun, or young Swaraster, or any other young man 
in the islands.” 

“ But, why then,” said Mordaunt, should you 
not see him, with patience, become acquainted with 
your sister ? — He is wealthy, or seems to be so at 
least. You say he is accomplished and pleasant ; — 
what else would you desire in a lover for Minna ? ” 

“ Mordaunt, you forget who we are,” said the 
maiden, assuming an air of consequence, which sat 
as gracefully upon her simplicity, as did the different 
tone in which she had spoken hitherto. “ This is 
a little world of ours, this Zetland, inferior, perhaps, 
in soil and climate to other parts of the earth, at 
least so strangers say ; but it is our own little world, 
and we, the daughters of Magnus Troil, hold a first 
rank in it. It would- I think, little become us, who 


THE PIRATE. 


249 


are descended from Sea-kings and Jarls, to throw 
ourselves away upon a stranger, who comes to our 
coast, like the eider-duck in spring, from we know 
not whence, and may leave it in autumn, to go we 
know not where.” 

“ And who may yet entice a Zetland golden-eye to 
accompany his migration,” said Mertoun. 

“ I will hear nothing light on such a subject,” 
replied Brenda, indignantly ; “ Minna, like myself, is 
the daughter of Magnus Troil, the friend of strangers, 
but the Father of Hialtland. He gives them the 
hospitality they need ; but let not the proudest of 
them think that they can, at their pleasure, ally 
with his house.” 

She said this in a tone of considerable warmth, 
which she instantly softened, as she added, “ No, 
Mordaunt, do not suppose that Minna Troil is ca- 
pable of so far forgetting what she owes to her father 
and her father’s blood, as to think of marrying this 
Cleveland ; but she may lend an ear to him so long 
as to destroy her future happiness. She has that 
sort of mind, into which some feelings sink deeply ; 
— you remember how IJlla Storlson used to go, day 
by day, to the top of Vossdale-head, to look for her 
lover’s ship that was never to return ? When I 
think of her slow step, her pale cheek, her eye, that 
grew dimmer and dimmer, like the lamp that is half 
extinguished for lack of oil, — when I remember the 
fluttered look, of something like hope, with which 
she ascended the cliff at morning, and the deep dead 
despair which sat on her forehead when she re- 
turned, — when I think on all this, can you wonder 
that I fear for Minna, whose heart is formed to 
entertain, with such deep-rooted fldelity, any affec- 
tion that may be implanted in it ? ” 


zso 


THE PIRATE. 


“ I do not wonder,” said Mordaunt, eagerly sym- 
pathizing with the poor girl ; for, besides the 
tremulous expression of her voice, the light could 
almost show him the tear which trembled in her 
eye, as she drew the picture to which her fancy had 
assimilated her sister, — “ I do not wonder that you 
should feel and fear whatever the purest affection 
can dictate ; and if you can but point out to me in 
what I can serve your sisterly love, you shall find 
me as ready to venture my life, if necessary, as I 
have been to go out on the crag to get you the eggs 
of the guillemot ; and, believe me, that whatever 
has been told to your father or yourself, of my 
entertaining the slightest thoughts of disrespect or 
unkindness, is as false as a fiend could devise.” 

“ I believe it,” said Brenda, giving him her hand ; 

I believe it, and my bosom is lighter, now I have 
renewed my confidence in so old a friend. How 
you can aid us, I know not ; but it was by the ad- 
vice, I may say by the commands, of Norna, that I 
have ventured to make this communication ; and I 
almost wonder,” she added, as she looked around 
her, “ that I have had courage to carry me through 
it. At present you know all that I can tell you of 
the risk in which my sister stands. Look after 
this Cleveland — beware how you quarrel with him, 
since you must so surely come by the worst with 
an experienced soldier.” 

“ I do not exactly understand,” said the youth, 
“ how that should so surely be. This I know, that 
with the good limbs and good heart that God hath 
given me, ay, and with a good cause to boot — I am 
little afraid of any quarrel which Cleveland can fix 
upon me.” 

“Then, if not for your own sake, for Minna’s 


THE PIRATE. 


25 1 

sake,” said Brenda — “ for my father’s — for mine — 
for all our sakes, avoid any strife with him, but be 
contented to watch him, and, if possible, to discover 
who he is, and what are his intentions towards us. 
He has talked of going to Orkney, to enquire after 
the consort with whom he sailed ; but day after day, 
and week after week passes, and he goes not ; and 
while he keeps my father company over the bottle, 
and tells Minna romantic stories of foreign people, 
and distant wars, in wild and unknown regions, the 
time glides on, and the stranger, of whom we know 
nothing except that he is one, becomes gradually 
closer and more inseparably intimate in our society. 
— And now, farewell. Norna hopes to make your 
peace with my father, and entreats you not to leave 
Burgh-Westra to-morrow, however cold he and my 
sister may appear towards you. I too,” she said, 
stretching her hand towards him, “must wear a 
face of cold friendship as towards an unwelcome 
visitor, but at heart we are still Brenda and Mor- 
daunt. And now separate quickly, for we must 
not be seen together.” 

She stretched her hand to him, but withdrew it in 
some slight confusion, laughing and blushing, when, 
by a natural impulse, he was about to press it to 
his lips. He endeavoured for a moment to detain 
her, for the interview had for him a degree of fas- 
cination, which, as often as he had before been alone 
with Brenda, he had never experienced. But she 
extricated herself from him, and again signing an 
adieu, and pointing out to him a path different from 
that which she was herself about to take, tripped 
towards the house, and was soon hidden from his 
view by the acclivity. 

Mordaunt stood gazing after her in a state of mind, 


252 


THE PIRATE. 


to which, as yet, he had been a stranger. The du- 
bious neutral ground between love and friendship 
may be long and safely trodden, until he who stands 
upon it is suddenly called upon to recognise the au- 
thority of the one or the other power ; and then it 
most frequently happens, that the party who for 
years supposed himself only a friend, finds himself 
at once transformed into a lover. That such a 
change in Mordaunt’s feelings should take place 
from this date, although he himself was unable ex- 
actly to distinguish its nature, was to be expected. 
He found himself at once received, with the most 
unsuspicious frankness, into the confidence of a 
beautiful and fascinating young woman, by whom 
he had, so short a time before, imagined himself 
despised and disliked ; and, if any thing could make 
a change, in itself so surprising and so pleasing, yet 
more intoxicating, it was the guileless and open- 
hearted simplicity of Brenda, that cast an enchant- 
ment over every thing which she did or said. The 
scene, too, might have had its effect, though there 
was little occasion for its aid. But a fair face looks 
yet fairer under the light of the moon, and a sweet 
voice sounds yet sweeter among the whispering 
sounds of a summer night. Mordaunt, therefore, 
who had by this time returned to the house, was 
disposed to listen with unusual patience and com- 
placency to the enthusiastic declamation pronounced 
upon moonlight by Claud Halcro, whose ecstasies 
had been awakened on the subject by a short turn 
in the open air, undertaken to qualify the vapours 
of the good liquor, which he had not spared during 
the festival. 

“ The sun, my boy,” he said, " is every wretched 
labourer’s day-lantern — it comes glaring yonder 


THE PIRATE. 


253 


Out of the east, to summon up a whole world to 
labour and to misery ; whereas the merry moon 
lights all of us to mirth and to love.” 

“And to madness, or she is much belied,” said 
Mordaunt, by way of saying something. 

“ Let it be so,” answered Halcro, “ so she does not 
turn us melancholy-mad. — My dear young friend, 
the folks of this painstaking world are far too anx- 
ious about possessing all their wits, or having them, 
as they say, about them. At least I know I have 
been often called half-witted, and I am sure I have 
gone through the world as well as if I had double 
the quantity. But stop — where was I ? 0, touch- 
ing and concerning the moon — why, man, she is 
the very soul of love and poetry. I question if 
there was ever a true lover in existence who had 
not got at least as far as ‘ 0 thou,’ in a sonnet in 
her praise.” 

“The moon,” said the factor, who was now be- 
ginning to speak very thick, “ripens corn, at least 
the old folk said so — and she fills nuts also, whilk 
is of less matter — sparge nuces, pueri.*' 

“A fine, a fine,” said the Udaller, who was now 
in his altitudes ; “ the factor speaks Greek — by the 
bones of my holy namesake. Saint Magnus, he shall 
drink off the yawl full of punch, unless he gives us 
a song on the spot 1 ” 

“ Too much water drowned the miller,” answered 
Triptolemus. “ My brain has more need of drain- 
ing than of being drenched with more liquor.” 

“ Sing, then,” said the despotic landlord, “ for no 
one shall speak any other language here, save hon- 
est Norse, jolly Dutch, or Danske, or broad Scots, at 
the least of it. So, Eric Scambester, produce the yawl, 
and fill it to the brim, as a charge for demurrage.” 


254 


THE PIRATE. 


Ere the vessel could reach the agriculturist, he, 
seeing it under way, and steering towards him by 
short tacks, (for Scambester himself was by this 
time not over steady in his course,) made a despe- 
rate effort, and began to sing, or rather to croak 
forth, a Yorkshire harvest-home ballad, which his 
father used to sing when he was a little mellow, and 
which went to the tune of " Hey Dobbin, away with 
the waggon.” The rueful aspect of the singer, and 
the desperately discordant tones of his voice, formed 
so delightful a contrast with the jollity of the 
words and tune, that honest Triptolemus afforded 
the same sort of amusement which a reveller might 
give, by appearing on a festival-day in the holyday- 
coat of his grandfather. The jest concluded the 
evening, for even the mighty and strong-headed 
Magnus himself had confessed the influence of the 
sleepy god. The guests went off as they best might, 
each to his separate crib and resting place, and in 
a short time the mansion, which was of late so 
noisy, was hushed into perfect silence. 


CHAPTER XVIL 


They man their boats, and all the young men arm, 

With whatsoever might the monsters harm ; 

Pikes, halberds, spits, and darts, that wound afar. 

The tools of peace, and implements of war. 

Now was the time for vigorous lads to show 
What love or honour could incite them to ; — 

A goodly theatre, where rocks are round 
With reverend age and lovely lasses crown’d. 

Battle of the Summer Islands. 

The morning which succeeds such a feast as that 
of Magnus Troil, usually lacks a little of the zest 
which seasoned the revels of the preceding day, as 
the fashionable reader may have observed at a public 
breakfast during the race-week in a country town ; 
for, in what is called the best society, these linger- 
ing moments are usually spent by the company, each 
apart in their own dressing-rooms. At Burgh- 
Westra, it will readily be believed, no such space 
for retirement was afforded ; and the lasses, with 
their paler cheeks, the elder dames, with many a 
wink and yawn, were compelled to meet with their 
male companions (headaches and all) just three hours 
after they had parted from each other. 

Eric Scambester had done all that man could do 
to supply the full means of diverting the ennui of 
the morning meal. The board groaned with rounds 
of hung beef, made after the fashion of Zetland — 
with pasties — with baked meats — with fish, dressed 
and cured in every possible manner ; nay, with the 


256 


THE PIRATE. 


foreign delicacies of tea, coffee, and chocolate ; for, 
as we have already had occasion to remark, the situ- 
ation of these islands made them early acquainted 
with various articles of foreign luxury, which were, 
as yet, hut little known in Scotland, where, at a 
much later period than that we write of, one pound 
of green tea was dressed like cabbage, and another 
converted into a vegetable sauce for salt beef, by 
the ignorance of the good housewives to whom they 
had been sent as rare presents. 

Besides these preparations, the table exhibited 
whatever mighty potions are resorted to by tons 
vivans, under the facetious name of a “ hair of the 
dog that bit you.” There was the potent Irish Us- 
quebaugh — right Nantz — genuine Schiedamm — 
Aquavitae from Caithness — and Golden Wasser 
from Hamburgh ; there was rum of formidable an- 
tiquity, and cordials from the Leeward Islands. 
After these details, it were needless to mention the 
stout home-brewed ale — the German mum, and 
Schwartz beer. — and still more would it be beneath 
our dignity to dwell upon the innumerable sorts of 
pottage and flummery, together with the bland, and 
various preparations of milk, for those who preferred 
thinner potations. 

No wonder that the sight of so much good cheer 
awakened the appetite and raised the spirits of the 
fatigued revellers. The young men began imme- 
diately to seek out their partners of the preceding 
evening, and to renew the small talk which had 
driven the night so merrily away; while Magnus, 
with his stout old Norse kindred, encouraged, by 
precept and example, those of elder days and graver 
mood, to a substantial flirtation with the good 
things before them. Still, however, there was a 


THE PIRATE. 


257 


long period to be filled up before dinner; for the 
most protracted breakfast cannot well last above an 
hour; and it was to be feared that Claud Halcro 
meditated the occupation of this vacant morning 
with a formidable recitation of his own verses, be- 
sides telling, at its full length, the whole history 
of his introduction to glorious John Dryden. But 
fortune relieved the guests of Burgh-Westra from 
this threatened infliction, by sending them means 
of amusement peculiarly suited to their taste and 
habits. 

Most of the guests were using their toothpicks, 
some were beginning to talk of what was to be done 
next, when, with haste in his step, fire in his eye, 
and a harpoon in his hand, Eric Scambester came 
to announce to the company, that there was a whale 
on shore, or nearly so, at the throat of the voe ! 
Then you might have seen such a joyous, boister- 
ous, and universal bustle, as only the love of sport, 
so deeply implanted in our nature, can possibly 
inspire. A set of country squires, about to beat 
for the first woodcocks of the season, were a com- 
parison as petty, in respect to the glee, as in regard 
to the importance of the object; the battue, upon a 
strong cover in Ettrick Forest, for the destruction 
of the foxes ; (m) the insurrection of the sportsmen 
of the Lennox, when one of the Duke’s deer gets out 
from Inch-Mirran ; nay, the joyous rally of the fox- 
chase itself, with all its blithe accompaniments of 
hound and horn, fall infinitely short of the anima- 
tion with which the gallant sons of Thule set off 
to encounter the monster, whom the sea had sent 
for their amusement at so opportune a conjuncture. 

The multifarious stores of Burgh-Westra were 
rummaged hastily for all sorts of arms, which could 
yoL. I, — 17 


258 


THE PIRATE. 


be used on such an occasion. Harpoons, swords, 
pikes, and halberds, fell to the lot of some ; others 
contented themselves with hay-forks, spits, and what- 
ever else could be found, that was at once long and 
sharp. Thus hastily equipped, one division, under 
the command of Captain Cleveland, hastened to man 
the boats which lay in the little haven, while the 
rest of the party hurried by land to the scene of 
action. 

Poor Triptolemus was interrupted in a plan, which 
he, too, had formed against the patience of the Zet- 
landers, and which was to have consisted in a lecture 
upon the agriculture, and the capabilities of the 
country, by this sudden hubbub, which put an end 
at once to Halcro’s poetry, and to his no less for- 
midable prose. It may be easily imagined, that he 
took very little interest in the sport which was so 
suddenly substituted for his lucubrations, and he 
would not even have deigned to have looked upon 
the active scene which was about to take place, had 
he not been stimulated thereunto by the exhorta- 
tions of Mistress Baby. “ Pit yoursell forward, 
man,” said that provident person, “ pit yoursell for- 
ward — wha kens whare a blessing may light ? — 
they say that a’ men share and share equals-aquals 
in the creature’s ulzie, and a pint o’t wad be worth 
siller, to light the cruise in the lang dark nights that 
they speak of. Pit yoursell forward, man — there’s 
a graip to ye — faint heart never wan fair lady — 
wha kens but what, when it’s fresh, it may eat weel 
eneugh, and spare butter ? ” 

What zeal was added to Triptolemus’s motions, 
by the prospect of eating fresh train-oil, instead of 
butter, we know not ; but, as better might not be, 
he brandished the rural implement (a stable-fork) 


THE PIRATE. 


259 


with which he was armed, and went down to wage 
battle with the whale. 

The situation in which the enemy’s ill fate had 
placed him, was particularly favourable to the en- 
terprise of the islanders. A tide of unusual height 
had carried the animal over a large bar of sand, 
into the voe or creek in which he was now lying. 
So soon as he found the water ebbing, he became 
sensible of his danger, and had made desperate ef- 
forts to get over the shallow water, where the waves 
broke on the bar ; but hitherto he had rather in- 
jured than mended his condition, having got himself 
partly aground, and lying therefore particularly ex- 
posed to the meditated attack. At this moment the 
enemy came down upon him. The front ranks con- 
sisted of the young and hardy, armed in the mis- 
cellaneous manner we have described ; while, to 
witness and animate their efforts, the young women, 
and the elderly persons of both sexes, took their 
place among the rocks, which overhung the scene of 
action. 

As the boats had to double a little headland, ere 
they opened the mouth of the voe, those who came 
by land to the shores of the inlet, had time to make 
the necessary reconnoissances upon the force and 
situation of the enemy, on whom they were about to 
commence a simultaneous attack by land and sea. 

This duty, the stout-hearted and experienced gen- 
eral, for so the Udaller might be termed, would 
intrust to no eyes but his own ; and, indeed, his 
external appearance, and his sage conduct, rendered 
him alike qualified for the command which h8 en- 
joyed. His gold-laced hat was exchanged for a bear- 
skin cap, his suit of blue broadcloth, with its scarlet 
lining, and loops, and frogs of bullion, had given 


26 o 


THE PIHATE. 


place to a red flannel jacket, with buttons of black 
horn, over which he wore a seal-skin shirt curiously 
seamed and plaited on the bosom, such as are used 
by the Esquimaux, and sometimes by the Greenland 
whale-fishers. Sea-boots of a formidable size com- 
pleted his dress, and in his hand he held a large 
whaling-knife, which he brandished, as if impatient 
to employ it in the operation of flinching the huge 
animal which "’ay before them, — that is, the act of 
separating its flesh from its bones. Upon closer ex- 
amination, however, he was obliged to confess, that 
the sport to which he had conducted his friends, 
however much it corresponded with the magnificent 
scale of his hospitality, was likely to be attended 
with its own peculiar dangers and difficulties. 

The animal, upwards of sixty feet in length, was 
lying perfectly still, in a deep part of the voe into 
which it had weltered, and where it seemed to await 
the return of tide, of which it was probably assured 
by instinct. A council of experienced harpooners 
was instantly called, and it was agreed that an effort 
should be made to noose the 'tail of this torpid levi- 
athan, by casting a cable around it, to be made fast 
by anchors to the shore, and thus to secure against 
his escape, in case the tide should make before they 
were able to dispatch him. Three boats were des- 
tined to this delicate piece of service, one of which 
the Udaller himself proposed to command, while 
Cleveland and Mertoun were to direct the two others. 
This being decided, they sat down on the strand, wait- 
ing with impatience until the naval part of the force 
should arrive in the voe. It was during this inter- 
val, that Triptolemus Yellowley, after measuring with 
his eyes the extraordinary size of the whale, observed, 
that in his poor mind, “ A wain with six owsen, or 


THE PIRATE. 


261 


with sixty owsen either, if they were the owsen of the 
country, could not drag siccan a huge creature from 
the water, where it was now lying, to the sea-beach.” 

Trifling as this remark may seem to the reader, it 
was connected with a subject which always fired the 
blood of the old Udaller, who, glancing upon Tripto- 
lemus a quick and stern look, asked him what the 
devil it signified, supposing a hundred oxen could 
not drag the whale upon the beach ? Mr. Yellowley, 
though not much liking the tone with which the 
question was put, felt that his dignity and his profit 
compelled him to answer as follows : — “N’ay, sir — 
you know yoursell. Master Magnus Troil, and every 
one knows that knows any thing, that whales of 
siccan size as may not be masterfully dragged on 
shore by the instrumentality of one wain with six 
owsen, are the right and property of the Admiral, 
who is at this time the same noble lord who is, more- 
over, Chamberlain of these isles.” 

“ And I tell you, Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley,” 
said the Udaller, “ as I would tell your master if 
he were here, that every man who risks his life to 
bring that fish ashore, shall have an equal share and 
partition, according to our ancient and loveable 
Norse custom and wont ; nay, if there is so much as 
a woman looking on, that will but touch the cable, 
she will be partner with us ; ay, and more than all 
that, if she will but say there is a reason for it, we 
will assign a portion to the babe that is unborn.” {n) 

The strict principle of equity, which dictated this 
last arrangement, occasioned laughter among the 
men, and some slight confusion among the women. 
The factor, however, thought it shame to be so 
easily daunted. . “ Suum cuique t7nhuito!' said he ; 
“ 1 will stand for my lord’s right and my own.” 


262 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Will you ? ” replied Magnus ; “ then, by the 
Martyr’s bones, you shall have no law of partition 
but that of God and Saint Olave, which we had 
before either factor, or treasurer, or chamberlain 
were heard of ! — All shall share that lend a hand, 
and never a one else. So you. Master Factor, shall 
be busy as well as other folk, and think yourself 
lucky to share like other folk. Jump into that boat,” 
(for the boats had by this time pulled round the 
headland,) “ and you, my lads, make way for the 
factor in the stern-sheets — he shall be the first man 
this blessed day that shall strike the fish.” 

The loud authoritative voice, and the habit of 
absolute command inferred in the Udaller’s whole 
manner, together with the conscious want of fa- 
vourers and backers amongst the rest of the com- 
pany, rendered it difficult for Triptolemus to evade 
compliance, although he was thus about to be placed 
in a situation equally novel and perilous. He was 
still, however, hesitating, and attempting an expla- 
nation, with a voice in which anger was qualified by 
fear, and both thinly disguised under an attempt 
to be jocular, and to represent the whole as a jest, 
when he heard the voice of Baby maundering in 
his ear, — “Wad he lose his share of the ulzie, and 
the lang Zetland winter coming on, when the lightest 
day in December is not so clear as a moonless night 
in the Mearns ? ” 

This domestic instigation, in addition to those of 
fear of the Udaller, and shame to seem less coura- 
geous than others, so inflamed the agriculturist’s 
spirits, that he shook his graip aloft, and entered 
the boat with the air of Neptune himself, carrying 
on high his trident. 

The three boats destined for this perilous service, 


THE PIRATE. 


263 


now approached the dark mass, which lay like an 
islet in the deepest part of the voe, and suffered 
them to approach without showing any sign of ani- 
mation. Silently, and with such precaution as the 
extreme delicacy of the operation required, the in- 
trepid adventurers, after the failure of their first 
attempt, and the expenditure of considerable time, 
succeeded in casting a cable around the body of the 
torpid monster, and in carrying the ends of it ashore, 
when an hundred hands were instantly employed in 
securing them. But ere this was accomplished, the 
tide began to make fast, and the Udaller informed 
his assistants, that either the fish must be killed, or 
at least greatly wounded, ere the depth of water on 
the bar was sufficient to float him ; or that he was 
not unlikely to escape from their joint prowess. 

“ Wherefore,” said he, “ we must set to work, 
and the factor shall have the honour to make the 
first throw.” 

The valiant Triptolemus caught the word ; and 
it is necessary to say that the patience of the whale, 
in suffering himself to be noosed without resistance, 
had abated his terrors, and very much lowered the 
creature in his opinion. He protested the fish had 
no more wit, and scarcely more activity, than a 
black snail ; and, influenced by this undue contempt 
of the adversary, he waited neither for a further 
signal, nor a better weapon, nor a more suitable 
position, but, rising in his energy, hurled his graip 
with all his force against the unfortunate monster. 
The boats had not yet retreated from him to the 
distance necessary to ensure safety, when this in- 
judicious commencement of the war took place. 

Magnus Troil, who had only jested with the fac- 
tor, and had reserved the launching the first spear 


264 


THE PIRATE. 


against the whale to some much more skilful hand, 
had just time to exclaim, “ Mind yourselves, lads, 
or we are all swamped ! ” when the monster, roused 
at once from inactivity by the blow of the factor’s 
missile, blew, with a noise resembling the explosion 
of a steam-engine, a huge shower of water into the 
air, and at the same time, began to lash the waves 
with his tail in every direction. The boat in which 
Magnus presided received the shower of brine which 
the animal spouted aloft ; and the adventurous Trip- 
tolemus, who had a full share of the immersion, was 
so much astonished and terrified by the consequences 
of his own valorous deed, that he tumbled back- 
wards amongst the feet of the people, who, too busy 
to attend to him, were actively engaged in getting 
the boat into shoal water, out of the whale’s reach. 
Here he lay for some minutes, trampled on by the 
feet of the boatmen, until they lay on their oars to 
bale, when the Udaller ordered them to pull to 
shore, and land this spare hand, who had commenced 
the fishing so inauspiciously. 

While this was doing, the other boats had also 
pulled off to safer distance, and now, from these 
as well as from the shore, the unfortunate native of 
the deep was overwhelmed by all kinds of missiles, 

— harpoons and spears flew against him on all sides 

— guns were fired, and each various means of an- 
noyance plied which could excite him to exhaust his 
strength in useless rage. When the animal found 
that he was locked in by shallows on all sides, and 
became sensible, at the same time, of the strain of 
the cable on his body, the convulsive efforts which 
he made to escape, accompanied with sounds resem- 
bling deep and loud groans, would have moved the 
compassion of all but a practised whale-fisher. The 


THE PIRATE. 


265 


repeated showers which he spouted into the air 
began now to be mingled with blood, and the waves 
which surrounded him assumed the same crimson 
appearance. Meantime the attempts of the assaih 
ants were redoubled ; but Mordaunt Mertoun and 
Cleveland, in particular, exerted themselves to the 
uttermost, contending who should display most 
courage in approaching the monster, so tremendous 
in its agonies, and should inflict the most deep and 
deadly wounds upon its huge bulk. 

The contest seemed at last pretty well over ; for 
although the animal continued from time to time to 
make frantic exertions for liberty, yet its strength 
appeared so much exhausted, that, even with the 
assistance of the tide, which had now risen consider- 
ably, it was thought it could scarcely extricate itself. 

Magnus gave the signal to venture nearer to the 
whale, calling out at the same time, “ Close in, lads, 
he is not half so mad now — The Factor may look 
for a winter’s oil for the two lamps at Harfra — Pull 
close in, lads.” 

Ere his orders could be obeyed, the other two 
boats had anticipated his purpose; and Mordaunt 
Mertoun, eager to distinguish himself above Cleve- 
land, had, with the whole strength he possessed, 
plunged a half-pike into the body of the animal. 
But the leviathan, like a nation whose resources 
appear totally exhausted by previous losses and 
calamities, collected his whole remaining force for 
an effort, which proved at once desperate and suc- 
cessful. The wound, last received, had probably 
reached through his external defences of blubber, 
and attained some very sensitive part of the system ; 
for he toared aloud, as he sent to the sky a mingled 
sheet of brine and blood, and snapping the strong 


266 


THE HRATE. 


cable like a twig, overset Mertoun’s boat with a 
blow of his tail, shot himself, by a mighty effort, 
over the bar, upon which the tide had now risen 
considerably, and made out to sea, carrying with 
him a whole grove of the implements which had 
been planted in his body, and leaving behind him, 
on the waters, a dark red trace of his course. 

“There goes to sea your cruise of oil. Master 
Yellowley,” said Magnus, “ and you must consume 
mutton suet, or go to bed in the dark.” 

“ Operam et oleum perdidi^' muttered Triptole- 
mus ; “ but if they catch me whale-fishing again, 
I will consent that the fish shall swallow me as he 
did Jonah.” 

“ But where is Mordaunt Mertoun all this while ? ” 
exclaimed Claud Halcro ; and it was instantly per- 
ceived that the youth, who had been stunned when 
his boat was stove, was unable to swim to shore as 
the other sailors did, and now floated senseless 
upon the waves. 

We have noticed the strange and inhuman preju- 
dice, which rendered the Zetlanders of that period 
unwilling to assist those whom they saw in the act 
of drowning, though that is the calamity to which 
the islanders are most frequently exposed. Three 
men, however, soared above this superstition. The 
first was Claud Halcro, who threw himself from a 
small rock headlong into the waves, forgetting, as 
he himself afterwards stated, that he could not 
swim, and, if possessed of the harp of Arion, had no 
dolphins in attendance. The first plunge which 
the poet made in deep water, reminding him of 
these deficiencies, he was fain to cling to the rock 
from which he had dived, and was at length glad 
to regain the shore, at the expense of a ducking. 


THE PIRATE. 


267 


Magnus Troil, whose honest heart forgot his late 
coolness towards Mordaunt, when he saw the youth’s 
danger, would instantly have brought him more 
effectual aid, but Eric Scamhester held him fast. 

“Hout, sir — bout,” exclaimed that faithful at- 
tendant — “Captain Cleveland has a grip of Mr. 
Mordaunt — just let the twa strangers help ilk 
other, and stand by the upshot. The light of the 
country is not to be quenched for the like of them. 
Bide still, sir, I say — Bredness Voe is not a bowl 
of punch, that a man can be fished out of like a 
toast with a long spoon.” 

This sage remonstrance would have been alto- 
gether lost upon Magnus, had he not observed that 
Cleveland had in fact jumped out of the boat, and 
swum to Mertoun’s assistance, and was keeping him 
afloat till the boat came to the aid of both. As soon 
as the immediate danger which called so loudly for 
assistance was thus ended, the honest Udaller’s de- 
sire to render aid terminated also ; and recollecting 
the cause of offence which he had, or thought he 
had, against Mordaunt Mertoun, he shook off his 
butler’s hold, and turning round scornfully from the 
beach, called Eric an old fool for supposing that he 
cared whether the young fellow sank or swam. 

Still, however, amid his assumed indifference, 
Magnus could not help peeping over the heads of 
the circle, which, surrounding Mordaunt as soon as 
he was brought on shore, were charitably employed 
in endeavouring to recall him to life ; and he was 
not able to attain the appearance of absolute un- 
concern, until the young man sat up on the beach, 
and showed plainly that the accident had been at- 
tended with no material consequences. It was then 
first that, cursing the assistants for not giving the 


268 


THE PIRATE. 


lad a glass of brandy, be walked sullenly away, as 
if totally unconcerned in his fate. 

The women, always accurate in observing the tell- 
tale emotions of each other, failed not to remark, that 
when the sisters of Burgh- Westra saw Mordaunt 
immersed in the waves, Minna grew as pale as death, 
while Brenda uttered successive shrieks of terror. 
But though there were some nods, winks, and hints 
that auld acquaintance were not easily forgot, it 
was, on the whole, candidly admitted, that less than 
such marks of interest could scarce have been ex- 
pected, when they saw the companion of their early 
youth in the act of perishing before their eyes. 

Whatever interest Mordaunt’s condition excited 
while it seemed perilous, began to abate as he re- 
covered himself ; and when his senses were fully 
restored, only Claud Halcro, with two or three 
others, were standing by him. About ten paces off 
stood Cleveland — his hair and clothes dropping 
water, and his features wearing so peculiar an ex- 
pression, as immediately to arrest the attention of 
Mordaunt. There was a suppressed smile on his 
cheek, and a look of pride in his eye, that implied 
liberation from' a painful restraint, and something 
resembling gratified scorn. Claud Halcro hastened 
to intimate to Mordaunt, that he owed his life to 
Cleveland ; and the youth, rising from the ground, 
and losing all other feelings in those of gratitude, 
stepped forward with his hand stretched out, to 
offer his warmest thanks to his preserver. But- he 
stopped short in surprise, as Cleveland, retreating a 
pace or two, folded his arms on his breast, and de- 
clined to accept his proffered hand. He drew back 
in turn, and gazed with astonishment at the un- 
gracious manner, and almost insulting look, with 


THE PIRATE. 


269 


which Cleveland, who had formerly rather expressed 
a frank cordiality, or at least openness of bearing, 
now, after having thus rendered him a most impor- 
tant service, chose to receive his thanks. 

“ It is enough,” said Cleveland, observing his sur- 
prise, and it is unnecessary to say more about it. I 
have paid back my debt, and we are now equal.” 

“You are more than equal with me, Captain 
Cleveland,” answered Mertoun, “because you en- 
dangered your life to do for me what I did for you 
without the slightest risk ; — besides,” he added, try- 
ing to give the discourse a more pleasant turn, “ I 
have your rifle-gun to boot.” 

“ Cowards only count danger for any point of the 
game,” said Cleveland. “ Danger has been my con- 
sort for life, and sailed with me on a thousand worse 
voyages ; — and for rifles, I have enough of my own, 
and you may see, when you will, which can use them 
best.” 

There was something in the tone with which this 
was said, that struck Mordaunt strongly ; it was 
miching malicho, as Hamlet says, and meant mis- 
chief. Cleveland saw his surprise, came close up to 
him, and spoke in a low tone of voice : — “ Hark ye, 
my young brother. There is a custom among us 
gentlemen of fortune, that when we follow the same 
chase, and take the wind out of each other’s sails, 
we think sixty yards of the sea-beach, and a brace 
of rifles, are no bad way of making our odds even.” 

“ I do not understand you. Captain Cleveland,” 
said Mordaunt. 

“I do not suppose you do, — I did not suppose you 
would,” said the Captain ; and, turning on his heel, 
with a smile that resembled a sneer, Mordaunt saw 
him mingle with the guests, and very soon beheld 


270 


THE PIRATE. 


him at the side of Minna, who was talking to him 
with animated features, that seemed to thank him 
for his gallant and generous conduct. 

“ If it were not for Brenda,” thought Mordaunt, 
“ I almost wish he had left me in the voe, for no one 
seems to care whether I am alive or dead. — Two 
rifles and sixty yards of sea-beach — is that what 
he points at ? — It may come, — but not on the day 
he has saved my life with risk of his own.” 

While he was thus musing, Eric Scambester was 
whispering to Halcro, “ If these two lads do not 
do each other a mischief, there is no faith in freits. 
Master Mordaunt saves Cleveland, — well. — Cleve- 
land, in requital, has turned all the sunshine of 
Burgh-Westra to his own side of the house ; and 
think what it is to lose favour in such a house as 
this, where the punch-kettle is never allowed to 
cool ! Well, now that Cleveland in his turn has 
been such a fool as to fish Mordaunt out of the 
voe, see if he does not give him sour sillocks for 
stock-fish.” 

“ Pshaw, pshaw ! ” replied the poet, “ that is all 
old women’s fancies, my friend Eric ; for what says 
glorious Dry den — sainted John, — 

* The yellow gall that in your bosom floats, 
Engenders all these melancholy thoughts.’ ” 

“Saint John, or Saint James either, may be mis- 
taken in the matter,” said Eric ; “ for I think neither 
of them lived in Zetland. I only say, that if there 
is faith in old saws, these two lads will do each 
other a mischief; and if they do, I trust it will 
light on Mordaunt Mertoun.” 

“ And why, Eric Scambester,” said Halcro, hastily 


THE PIRATE. 


271 


and angrily, “ should you wish ill to that poor young 
man, that is worth fifty of the other ? ” 

“ Let every one roose the ford as Jie finds it,” re- 
plied Eric ; “ Master Mordaunt is all for wan water, 
like his old dog-fish of a father ; now Captain Cleve- 
land, d’ye see, takes his glass, like an honest fellow 
and a gentleman.” 

“Rightly reasoned, and in thine own division,” 
said Halcro ; and breaking off their conversation, 
took his way back to Burgh-Westra, to which the 
guests of Magnus were now returning, discussing as 
they went, with much animation, the various in- 
cidents of their attack upon the whale, and not a 
little scandalized that it should have baffled all their 
exertions. 

“I hope Captain Donderdrecht of the Eintracht 
of Rotterdam will never hear of it,” said Magnus ; 
“ he would swear, donner and blitzen, we were only 
fit to fish flounders.” ^ 

1 The contest about the whale will remind the poetical reader of 
Waller’s Battle of the Summer Islands. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


And helter-skelter have I rode to thee, 

And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys. 

And golden times, and happy news of price. 

Ancient Pistol. 


Foetune, who seems at times to bear a conscience, 
owed the hospitable Udaller some amends, and ac- 
cordingly repaid to Burgh- Westra the disappoint- 
ment occasioned by the unsuccessful whale-fishing, 
by sending thither, on the evening of the day in 
which that incident happened, no less a person than 
the jagger, or travelling merchant, as he styled him- 
self, Bryce Snailsfoot, who arrived in great pomp, 
himself on one pony, and his pack of goods, swelled 
to nearly double its usual size, forming the burden 
of another, which was led by a bare-headed bare- 
legged boy. 

As Bryce announced himself the bearer of impor- 
tant news, he was introduced to the dining apart- 
ment, where (for that primitive age was no respecter 
of persons) he was permitted to sit down at a side- 
table, and amply supplied with provisions and good 
liquor; while the attentive hospitality of Magnus 
permitted no questions to be put to him, until, his 
hunger and thirst appeased, he announced, with 
the sense of importance attached to distant travels, 
that he had just yesterday arrived at Lerwick from 
Kirkwall, the capital of Orkney, and would have 


THE PIRATE. 


273 


been here yesterday, but it blew hard off the 
Fitful-head. 

“We had no wind here,” said Magnus. 

“ There is somebody has not been sleeping, then,” 
said the pedlar, “ and her name begins with N ; but 
Heaven is above all.” 

“ But the news from Orkney, Bryce, instead of 
croaking about a capful of wind ? ” 

“ Such news,” replied Bryce, “ as has not been heard 
this thirty years — not since Cromwell’s time.” 

“ There is not another Revolution, is there ? ” said 
Halcro; “King James has not come back, as blithe 
as King Charlie did, has he ? ” 

“ It’s news,” replied the pedlar, “ that are worth 
twenty kings, and kingdoms to boot of them ; for 
what good did the evolutions ever do us? and I 
dare say we have seen a dozen, great and sma’.” 

“ Are any Indiamen come north about ? ” said 
Magnus Troil. 

“Ye are nearer the mark, Fowd,” said the jagger; 
“ but it is nae Indiaman, but a gallant armed vessel, 
chokeful of merchandise, that they part with so 
easy that a decent man like myseU can afford to 
give the country the best pennyworths you ever 
saw ; and that you will say, when I open that pack, 
for I count to carry it back another sort lighter than 
when I brought it here.” 

“Ay, ay, Bryce,” said the Udaller, “you must 
have had good bargains if you sell cheap ; but what 
ship was it ? ” 

“ Cannot justly say — I spoke to nobody but- 'the 
captain, who was a discreet man ; but she had been 
down on the Spanish Main, for she has silks and 
satins, and tobacco, I warrant you, and wine, and 
no lack of sugar, and bonny-wallies baith of silver 

VOL. I. — 18 


274 


THE PIRATE. 


and gowd, and a bonnie dredging of gold dust into 
the bargain.” 

“ What like was she ? ” said Cleveland, who 
seemed to give much attention. 

“A stout ship,” said the itinerant merchant, 
“schooner-rigged, sails like a dolphin, they say, 
carries twelve guns, and is pierced for twenty.” 

“ Did you hear the captain’s name ? ” said Cleve- 
land, speaking rather lower than his usual tone. 

“ I just ca’d him the Captain,” replied Bryce 
Snailsfoot ; “ for I make it a rule never to ask ques- 
tions of them I deal with in the way of trade ; for 
there is many an honest captain, begging your par- 
don, Captain Cleveland, that does not care to have 
his name tacked to his title ; and as lang as we ken 
what bargains we are making, what signifies it wha 
we are making them wi’, ye ken ? ” 

“ Bryce Snailsfoot is a cautious man,” said the 
Udaller, laughing ; “ he knows a fool may ask more 
questions than a wise man cares to answer.” 

“ I have dealt with the fair traders in my day,” 
replied Snailsfoot, “ and I ken nae use in blurting 
braid out with a man’s name at every moment ; but 
I will uphold this gentleman to be a gallant com- 
mander — ay, and a kind one too ; for every one of 
his crew is as brave in apparel as himself nearly — 
the very foremast-men have their silken scarfs ; I 
have seen many a lady wear a warse, and think 
hersell nae sma’ drink — and for siller buttons, and 
buckles, and the lave of sic vanities, there is nae 
end of them.” 

“ Idiots ! ” muttered Cleveland between his teeth ; 
and then added, “ I suppose they are often ashore, 
to show all their bravery to the lasses of Kirkwall ? ” 

“ Ne’er a bit of that are they. The Captain will 


THE PIRATE. 


275 


scarce let them stir ashore without the boatswain go 
in the boat — as rough a tarpaulin as ever swabb’d 
a deck — and you may as weel catch a cat with- 
out her claws, as him without hiS cutlass and 
his double brace of pistols about him ; every man 
stands as much in awe of him as of the comman- 
der himsell.” 

“ That must be Hawkins, or the devil,” said 
Cleveland. 

‘‘Aweel, Captain,” replied the jagger, “be he 
the tane or the tither, or a wee bit o’ baith, mind 
it is you that give him these names, and not I.” 

“Why, Captain Cleveland,” said the Udaller, 
“ this may prove the very consort you spoke of.” 

“ They must have had some good luck, then,” 
said Cleveland, “ to put them in better plight than 
when I left them. — Did they speak of having lost 
their consort, pedlar ? ” 

“ In troth did they,” said Bryce ; “ that is, they 
said something about a partner that had gone down 
to Davie Jones in these seas.” 

“ And did you tell them what you knew of her ? ” 
said the Udaller. 

“And wha the deevil wad hae been the fule, 
then,” said the pedlar, “ that I suld say sae ? When 
they kend what came of the ship, the next question 
wad have been about the cargo, — and ye wad not 
have had me bring down an armed vessel on the 
coast, to harrie the poor folk about a wheen rags 
' of duds that the sea flung upon their shores ? ” 

“ Besides, what might have been found in your 
own pack, you scoundrel ! ” said Magnus Troil ; an 
observation which produced a loud laugh. The 
Udaller could not help joining in the hilarity which 
applauded his jest; but instantly composing his 


276 


THE PIRATE. 


countenance, lie said, in an unusually grave tone, 
“ You may laugh, my friends ; but this is a matter 
which brings both a curse and a shame on the coun- 
try ; and till we learn to regard the rights of them 
that suffer by the winds and waves, we shall deserve 
to be oppressed and hag-ridden, as we have been 
and are, by the superior strength of the strangers 
who rule us.” 

The company hung their heads at the rebuke of 
Magnus Troil. Perhaps some, even of the better 
class, might be conscience-struck on their own ac- 
count ; and all of them were sensible that the ap- 
petite for plunder, on the part of the tenants and 
inferiors, was not at all times restrained with suffi- 
cient strictness. But Cleveland made answer gaily. 
If these honest fellows be my comrades, I will 
answer for them that they will never trouble the 
country about a parcel of chests, hammocks, and 
such trumpery, that the Roost may have washed 
ashore out of my poor sloop. What signifies to them 
whether the trash went to Bryce Snailsfoot, or to 
the bottom, or to the devil ? So unbuckle thy pack, 
Bryce, and show the ladies thy cargo, and perhaps 
we may see something that will please them.” 

“ It cannot be his consort,” said Brenda, in a 
whisper to her sister ; “ he would have shown more 
joy at her appearance.” 

‘‘ It must be the vessel,” answered Minna ; “ I 
saw his eye glisten' at the thought of being again 
united to the partner of his dangers.” 

“ Perhaps it glistened,” said her sister, still apart, 
“ at the thought of leaving Zetland ; it is difficult 
to guess the thought of the heart from the glance 
of the eye.” 

“Judge not, at least, unkindly of a friend’s 


THE PIRATE. 


277 


thought,” said Minna ; " and then, Brenda, if you 
are mistaken, the fault rests not with you.” 

During this dialogue, Bryce Snailsfoot was busied 
in uncoiling the carefully arranged cordage of his 
pack, which amounted to six good yards of dressed 
seal-skin, curiously complicated and secured by all 
manner of knots and buckles. He was considerably 
interrupted in the task by the Udaller and others, 
who pressed him with questions respecting the 
stranger vessel. 

“ Were the officers often ashore ? and how were 
they received by the people of Kirkwall ? ” said 
Magnus Troil. 

“ Excellently well,” answered Bryce Snailsfoot ; 
“ and the Captain and one or two of his men had 
been at some of the vanities and dances which went 
forward in the town ; but there had been some word 
about customs, or king’s duties, or the like, and some 
of the higher folk, that took upon them as magis- 
trates, or the like, had had words with the Captain, 
and he refused to satisfy them ; and then it is like 
he was more coldly looked on, and he spoke of car- 
rying the ship round to Stromness, or the Langhope, 
for she lay under the guns of the battery at Kirk- 
wall. But he ” (Bryce) “ thought she wad bide at 
Kirkwall till the summer-fair was over, for all that.” 

“The Orkney gentry,” said Magnus Troil, “are 
always in a hurry to draw the Scotch collar tighter 
round their own necks. Is it not enough that we 
must pay scat and wattle, which were all the public 
dues under our old Horse government; but must 
they come over us with king’s dues and customs 
besides ? It is the part of an honest man to resist 
these things. I have done so all my life, and will 
do so to the end of it.” 


278 


THE PIKATE. 


There was a loud jubilee and shout of applause 
among the guests, who were (some of them at least) 
better pleased with Magnus Troil’s latitudinarian 
principles with respect to the public revenue, (which 
were extremely natural to those living in so se- 
cluded a situation, and subjected to many additional 
exactions,) than they had been with the rigour of 
his judgment on the subject of wrecked goods. But 
Minna’s inexperienced feelings carried her farther 
than her father, while she whispered to Brenda, not 
unheard by Cleveland, that the tame spirit of the 
Orcadians had missed every chance which late inci- 
dents had given them to emancipate these islands 
from the Scottish yoke. 

“ Why,” she said, “ should we not, under so many 
changes as late times have introduced, have seized 
the opportunity to shake off an allegiance which is 
not justly due from us, and to return to the protec- 
tion of Denmark, our parent country ? Why should 
we yet hesitate to do this, but that the gentry of 
Orkney have mixed families and friendship so much 
with our invaders, that they have become dead to 
the throb of the heroic Norse blood, which they de- 
rived from their ancestors ? ” 

The latter part of this patriotic speech happened 
to reach the astonished ears of our friend Triptole- 
mus, who, having a sincere devotion for the Protest- 
ant succession, and the Revolution as established, 
was surprised into the ejaculation, “ As the old cock 
crows the young cock learns — hen I should say, 
mistress, and I crave your pardon if I say any thing 
amiss in either gender. But it is a happy country 
where the father declares against the king’s customs, 
and the daughter against the king’s crown ! and, in my 
judgment, it can end in naething but trees and tows.” 


THE PIKaTE. 


m 

“ Trees are scarce among us,” said Magnus ; “ and 
for ropes, we need them for our rigging, and cannot 
spare them to be shirt-collars.” 

“And whoever,” said the Captain, “takes um- 
brage at what this young lady says, had better keep 
his ears and tongue for a safer employment than 
such an adventure.” 

“ Ay, ay,” said Triptolemus, “ it helps the matter 
much to speak truths, whilk are as unwelcome to a 
proud stomach as wet clover to a cow’s, in a land 
where lads are ready to draw the whittle if a lassie 
but looks awry. But what manners are to be ex- 
pected in a country where folk call a pleugh-sock a 
markal ? ” 

“ Hark ye, Master Yellowley,” said the Captain, 
smiling, “ I hope my manners are not among those 
abuses which you come hither to reform ; any ex- 
periment on them may be dangerous.” 

“As well as difficult,” said Triptolemus, dryly; 
“ but fear nothing. Captain Cleveland, from my re- 
monstrances. My labours regard the men and 
things of the earth, and not the men and things of 
the sea, — you are not of my element.” 

“ Let us be friends, then, old clod-compeller,” said 
the Captain. 

“ Clod-compeller ! ” said the agriculturist, bethink- 
ing himself of the lore of his earlier days ; “ Clod-coni- 
peller pro cloud-compeller, NecpeXi^yepera Zeu? (o) — 
Grcecum est, — in which voyage came you by that 
phrase ? ” 

“ I have travelled books as well as seas in my 
day,” said the Captain ; “ but my last voyages have 
been of a sort to make me forget my early cruizes 
through classic knowledge. — But come here, Bryce, 
— hast cast off the lashing ? — Come all hands, and 


28 o 


THE PIRATE. 


let us see if he has aught in his cargo that is worth 
looking upon.” 

With a proud, and, at the same time, a wily 
smile, did the crafty pedlar display a collection of 
wares far superior to those which usually filled his 
packages, and, in particular, some stuffs and em- 
broideries, of such beauty and curiosity, fringed, 
flowered, and worked, with such art and magnifi- 
cence, upon foreign and arabesque patterns, that the 
sight might have dazzled a far more brilliant com- 
pany than the simple race of Thule. All beheld 
and admired, while Mistress Baby Yellowley, hold- 
ing up her hands, protested it was a sin even to look 
upon such extravagance, and worse than murder so 
much as to ask the price of them. 

Others, however, were more courageous ; and the 
prices demanded by the merchant, if they were not, 
as he himself declared, something just more than 
nothing — short only of an absolute free gift of his 
wares, were nevertheless so moderate, as to show 
that he himself must have made an easy acquisition 
of the goods, judging by the rate at which he offered 
to part with them. Accordingly, the cheapness of 
the articles created a rapid sale ; for in Zetland, as 
well as elsewhere, wise folk buy more from the jjru- 
dential desire to secure a good bargain, than from 
any real occasion for the purchase. The Lady 
Glowrowrum bought seven petticoats and twelve 
stomachers on this sole principle, and other matrons 
present rivalled her in this sagacious species of 
economy. The Udaller was also a considerable pur- 
chaser ; but the principal customer for whatever 
could please the eye of beauty, was the gallant Cap- 
tain Cleveland, who rummaged the jagger’s stores 
in selecting presents for the ladies of the party, 


THE PIRATE. 


281 


in which Minna and Brenda Troil were especially 
remembered. 

“ I fear,” said Magnus Troil, “ that the young wo- 
men are to consider these pretty presents as keep- 
sakes, and that all this liberality is only a sure sign 
we are soon to lose you ? ” 

This question seemed to embarrass him to whom 
it was put. 

“ I scarce know,” he said with some hesitation, 
whether this vessel is my consort or no — I must 
take a trip to Kirkwall to make sure of that matter, 
and then I hope to return to Dunrossness to bid you 
all farewell.” 

“ In that case,” said the Udaller, after a moment’s 
pause, “ I think 1 may carry you thither. I should 
be at the Kirkwall fair, to settle with the merchants 
I have consigned my fish to, and I have often pro- 
mised Minna and Brenda that they should see the 
fair. Perhaps also your consort, or these strangers, 
whoever they be, may have some merchandise that 
will suit me. I love to see my rigging-loft well 
stocked with goods, almost as much as to see it full 
of dancers. We will go to Orkney in my own brig, 
and I can offer you a hammock, if you will.” 

The offer seemed so acceptable to Cleveland, that, 
after pouring himself forth in thanks, he seemed 
determined to mark his joy by exhausting Bryce 
Snailsfoot’s treasures in liberality to the company. 
The contents of a purse of gold were transferred 
to the jagger, with a facility and indifference on the 
part of its former owner which argued either the 
greatest profusion, or consciousness of superior and 
inexhaustible wealth ; so that Baby whispered to 
her brother, that, “ if he could afford to fling away 
money at this rate, the lad had made a better yoj< 


282 


THE PIRATE. 


age in a broken ship, than all the skippers of Dun- 
dee had made in their haill anes for a twelvemonth 
past.” 

But the angry feeling in which she made this 
remark was much mollified,, when Cleveland, whose 
object it seemed that evening to be, to buy golden 
opinions of all sorts of men, approached her with a 
garment somewhat resembling in shape the Scottish 
plaid, but woven of a sort of wool so soft, that it 
felt to the touch as if it were composed of eider- 
down. “ This,” he said, “ was a part of a Spanish 
lady’s dress, called a mantilla ; as it would exactly 
fit the size of Mrs. Baby Yellowley, and was very 
well suited for the fogs of the climate of Zetland, 
he entreated her to wear it for his sake.” The lady, 
with as much condescending sweetness as her coun- 
tenance was able to express, not only consented to 
receive this mark of gallantry, but permitted the 
donor to arrange the mantilla upon her projecting 
and bony shoulder-blades, where, said Claud Halcro, 
“ it hung, for all the world, as if it had been stretched 
betwixt a couple of cloak-pins.” 

While the Captain was performing this piece of 
courtesy, much to the entertainment of the com- 
pany, which, it may be presumed, was his principal 
object from the beginning, Mordaunt Mertoun made 
purchase of a small golden chaplet, with the private 
intention of presenting it to Brenda, when he should 
find an opportunity. The price was fixed, and the 
article laid aside. Claud Halcro also showed some 
desire of possessing a silver box of antique shape, 
for depositing tobacco, which he was in the habit of 
using in considerable quantity. But the bard sel- 
dom had current coin in promptitude, and, indeed, 
in his wandering way of life, had little occasion for 


THE PIRATE. 


283 


any ; and Bryce, on the other hand, his having been 
hitherto a ready-money trade, protested, that his 
very moderate profits upon such rare and choice 
articles, would not allow of his affording credit to the 
purchaser. Mordaunt gathered the import of this 
conversation from the mode in which they whis- 
pered together, while the bard seemed to advance a 
wishful finger towards the box in question, and the 
cautious pedlar detained it with the weight of his 
whole hand, as if he had been afraid it would liter- 
ally make itself wings, and fly into Claud Halcro’s 
pocket. Mordaunt Mertoun at this rrioment, desi- 
rous to gratify an old acquaintance, laid the price of 
the box on the table, and said he would not permit 
Master Haler 0 to purchase that box, as he had settled 
in his own mind to make him a present of it. 

“ I cannot think of robbing you, my dear young 
friend,” said the poet ; “ but the truth is, that that 
same box does remind me strang(3ly of glorious 
John’s, out of which I had the honour to take a 
pinch at the Wits’ Coffeehouse, for which I think 
more highly of my right-hand finger and thumb than 
any other part of my body ; only you must allow 
me to pay you back the price when my Urkaster 
stock-fish come to market.” 

“ Settle that as you like betwixt you,” said the 
jagger, taking up Mordaunt’s money ; “ the box is 
bought and sold.” 

“ And how dare you sell over again,” said Captain 
Cleveland, suddenly interfering, “ what you already 
have sold to me ? ” 

All were surprised at this interjection, which 
was hastily made, as Cleveland, having turned from 
Mistress Baby, had become suddenly, and, as it 
seemed, not without emotion, aware what articles 


284 


THE PIRATE. 


Bryce Snailsfoot was now disposing of. To this 
short and fierce question, the jagger, afraid to con- 
tradict a customer of his description, answered only 
by stammering, that the “ Lord knew he meant nae 
offence.” 

“ How, sir ! no offence ! ” said the seaman, “ and 
dispose of my property ? ” extending his hand at the 
same time to the box and chaplet ; “ restore the 
young gentleman’s money, and learn to keep your 
course on the meridian of honesty.” 

The jagger, confused and reluctant, pulled out his 
leathern pouch to repay to Mordaunt the money he 
had just deposited in it ; but the youth was not to 
be so satisfied. 

“ The articles,” he said, “ were bought and sold — 
these were your own words, Bryce Snailsfoot, in Mas- 
ter Halcro’s hearing ; and I will suffer neither you 
nor any other to deprive me of my property.” 

‘‘ Your property, young man ? ” said Cleveland ; 
“ It is mine, — I spoke to Bryce respecting them an 
instant before I turned from the table.” 

“I — I — I had not just heard distinctly,” said 
Bryce, evidently unwilling to offend either party. 

“ Come, come,” said the Udaller, “ we will have 
no quarrelling about baubles ; we shall be summoned 
presently to the rigging-loft,” — so he used to call 
the apartment used as a ball-room, — “ and we must 
all go in good-humour. The things shall remain 
with Bryce for to-night, and to-morrow I will myself 
settle whom they shall belong to.” 

The laws of the Udaller in his own house were 
absolute as those of the Medes. The two young 
men, regarding each other with looks of sullen dis- 
pleasure, drew off in different directions. 

It is seldom that the second day of a prolonged 


THE PIRATE. 


285 

festival equals the first. The spirits, as well as 
the limbs, are jaded, and unequal to the renewed 
expenditure of animation and exertion ; and the 
dance at Burgh-Westra was sustained with much 
less mirth than on the preceding evening. It was 
yet an hour from midnight, when even the reluctant 
Magnus Troil, after regretting the degeneracy of 
the times, and wishing he could transfuse into the 
modern Hialtlanders some of the vigour which still 
animated his own frame, found himself compelled 
to give the signal for general retreat. 

Just as this took place, Halcro, leading Mordaunt 
Mertoun a little aside, said he had a message to him 
from Captain Cleveland. 

“ A message ! ” said Mordaunt, his heart beat- 
ing somewhat thick as he spoke — “A challenge, I 
suppose ? ” 

“ A challenge ! ” repeated Halcro ; “ who ever 

heard of a challenge in our quiet islands ? Do you 
think that I look like a carrier of challenges, and 
to you of all men living ? — I am none of those 
fighting fools, as glorious John calls them ; and it 
was not quite a message I had to deliver — only 
thus far — this Captain Cleveland, I find, hath set 
his heart upon having these articles you looked at.’' 

“ He shall not have them, I swear to you,” re- 
plied Mordaunt Mertoun. 

“ Nay, but hear me,” said Halcro ; “ it seems 
that, by the marks or arms that are upon them, he 
knows that they were formerly his property. Now, 
were you to give me the box, as you promised, I 
fairly tell you, I should give the man back his 
own.” 

“ And Brenda might do the like,” thought Mor- 
daunt to himself, and instantly replied aloud, “I 


286 


THE PIRATE. 


have thought better of it, my friend. Captain 
Cleveland shall have the toys he sets such store by, 
but it is on one sole condition.” 

“ Nay, you will spoil all with your conditions,” 
said Halcro ; “ for, as glorious John says, conditions 
are but ” 

“ Hear me, I say, with patience. — My condi- 
tion is, that he keeps the toys in exchange for the 
rifle-gun I accepted from him, which will leave no 
obligation between us on either side.” 

“ I see where you would be — this is Sebastian 
and Dorax all over. Well, you may let the jagger 
know he is to deliver the things to Cleveland — I 
think he is mad to have them — and I will let 
Cleveland know the conditions annexed, otherwise 
honest Bryce might come by two payments instead 
of one; and I believe his conscience would not 
choke upon it.” 

With these words, Halcro went to seek out Cleve- 
land, while Mordaunt, observing Snailsfoot, who, 
as a sort of privileged person, had thrust himself 
into the crowd at the bottom of the dancing-room, 
went up to him, and gave him directions to deliver 
the disputed articles to Cleveland as soon as he had 
an opportunity. 

“Ye are in the right, Maister Mordaunt,” said 
the jagger ; “ ye are a prudent and a sensible lad 
— a calm answer turneth away wrath — and mysell, 
I sail be willing to please you in ony trifling mat- 
ters in my sma’ way ; for, between the Udaller of 
Burgh- Westra and Captain Cleveland, a man is, as 
it were, atween the deil and the deep sea ; and it 
was like that the Udaller, in the end, would have 
taken your part in the dispute, for he is a man that 
loves justice.” 


THE PIKATE. 


287 


“ Which apparently you care very little about, 
Master Snailsfoot,” said Mordaunt, “ otherwise there 
could have been no dispute whatever, the right 
being so clearly on my side, if you had pleased to 
bear witness according to the dictates of truth ” 

“ Maister Mordaunt,” said the jagger, “ I must 
own there was, as it were, a colouring or shadow of 
justice on. your side; but then, the justice that I 
meddle with, is only justice in the way of trade, to 
have an ellwand of due length, if it be not some- 
thing worn out with leaning on it in my lang and 
painful journeys, and to buy and sell by just weight 
and measure, twenty-four merks to the lispund ; but 
I have nothing to do, to do justice betwixt man and 
man, like a Fowd or a Lawright-man at a law ting 
lang syne.” 

“No one asked you to do so, but only to give 
evidence according to your conscience,” replied 
Mordaunt, not greatly pleased either with the part 
the jagger had acted during the dispute, or the con- 
struction which he seemed to put on his own mo- 
tives for yielding up the point. 

But Bryce Snailsfoot wanted not his answer ; 
“ My conscience,” he said, “ Maister Mordaunt, is as 
tender as ony man’s in my degree ; but she is some- 
thing of a timorsome nature, cannot abide angry 
folk, and can never speak above her breath, when 
there is aught of a fray going forward. Indeed, she 
hath at all times a small and low voice.” 

“ Which you are not much in the habit of listen- 
ing to,” said Mordaunt. 

“ There is that on your ain breast that proves the 
contrary,” said Bryce, resolutely. 

“ In my breast ? ” said Mordaunt, somewhat 
angrily, — “ what know I of you ? ” 


288 


THE PIRATE. 


“ I said on your breast, Maister Mordaunt, and not 
in it. I am sure nae eye that looks on that waist- 
coat upon your own gallant brisket, but will say, 
that the merchant who sold such a piece for four 
dollars had justice and conscience, and a kind heart 
to a customer to the boot of a’ that ; sae ye shouldna 
be sae thrawart wi’ me for having spared the breath 
of my mouth in a fool’s quarrel.” 

“ I thrawart ! ” said Mordaunt ; “ pooh, you silly 
man ! I have no quarrel with you.” 

“ I am glad of it,” said the travelling merchant ; 
“ I will quarrel with no man, with my will — least 
of all with an old customer ; and if you will walk 
by my advice, you will quarrel nane with Captain 
Cleveland. He is like one of yon cutters and slash- 
ers that have come into Kirkwall, that think as 
little of slicing a man, as we do of flinching a whale 
— it’s their trade to fight, and they live by it ; and 
they have the advantage of the like of you, that 
only take it up at your own hand, and in the way 
of pastime, when you hae nothing better to do.” 

The company had now almost all dispersed ; and 
Mordaunt, laughing at the jagger’s caution, bade him 
good-night, and went to his own place of repose, 
which had been assigned to him by Eric Scambester, 
(who acted the part of chamberlain as well as butler,) 
in a small room, or rather closet, in one of the out- 
houses, furnished for the occasion with the hammock 
of a sailor. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


I pass like night from land to land, 

I have strange power of speech ; 

So soon as e’er his face I see, 

I know the man that must hear me, 

To him my tale I teach. 

Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner 

The daughters of Magnus Troil shared the same bed, 
in a chamber which had been that of their parents 
before the death of their mother. Magnus, who suf- 
fered grievously under that dispensation of Provi- 
dence, had become disgusted with the apartment. 
The nuptial chamber was abandoned to the pledges 
of his bereaved affection, of whom the eldest was at 
that period only four years old, or thereabouts ; and, 
having been their nursery in infancy, continued, 
though now tricked and adorned according to the 
best fashion of the islands, and the taste of the 
lovely sisters themselves, to be their sleeping-room, 
or, in the old Norse dialect, their bower. 

It had been for many years the scene of the 
most intimate confidence, if that could be called 
confidence, where, in truth, there was nothing to 
be confided ; where neither sister had a secret ; 
and where every thought that had birth in the 
bosom of the one, was, without either hesitation 
or doubt, confided to the other as spontaneously as 
it had arisen. But, since Cleveland abode in the 
mansion of Burgh-Westra, each of the lovely sisters 
had entertained thoughts which are not lightly or 

VOL. I. — 19 


290 


THE PIRATE. 


easily communicated, unless she who listens to them 
has previously assured herself that the confidence 
will be kindly received. Minna had noticed what 
other and less interested observers had been unable 
to perceive, that Cleveland, namely, held a lower 
rank in Brenda’s opinion than in her own ; and 
Brenda, on her side, thought that Minna had hastily 
and unjustly joined in the prejudices which had 
been excited against Mordaunt Mertoun in the mind 
of their father. Each was sensible that she was no 
longer the same to her sister ; and this conviction 
was a painful addition to other painful apprehensions 
which they supposed they had to struggle with. 
Their manner towards each other was, in outward 
appearances, and in all the little cares by which af- 
fection can be expressed, even more assiduously kind 
than before, as if both, conscious that their internal 
reserve was a breach of their sisterly union, strove to 
atone for it by double assiduity in those external 
marks of affection, which, at other times, when there 
was nothing to hide, might be omitted without in- 
ferring any consequences. 

On the night referred to in particular, the sisters 
felt more especially the decay of the confidence 
which used to exist betwixt them. The proposed 
voyage to Kirkwall, and that at the time of the fair, 
when persons of every degree in these islands repair 
thither, either for business or amusement, was likely 
to be an important incident in lives usually so simple 
and uniform as theirs ; and, a few months ago, Minna 
and Brenda would have been awake half the night, 
anticipating, in their talk with each other, all that 
was likely to happen on so momentous an occasion. 
But now the subject was just mentioned, and suffered 
to drop, as if the topic was likely to produce a dif- 


THE pirate. 


2gt 

ference betwixt them, or to call forth a more open 
display of their several opinions than either was 
willing to make to the other. 

Yet such was their natural openness and gentle- 
ness of disposition, that each sister imputed to herself 
the fault that there was aught like estrangement ex- 
isting between them ; and when, having finished 
their devotions, and betaken themselves to their 
common couch, they folded each other in their 
arms, and exchanged a sisterly kiss, and a sisterly 
good-night, they seemed mutually to ask pardon, and 
to exchange forgiveness, although neither said a 
word of offence, either offered or received ; and both 
were soon plunged in that light and yet profound re- 
pose, which is only enjoyed when sleep sinks down 
on the eyes of youth and innocence. 

On the night to which the story relates, both sis- 
ters were visited by dreams, which, though varied 
by the moods and habits of the sleepers, bore yet a 
strange general resemblance to each other. 

Minna dreamed that she was in one of the most 
lonely recesses of the beach, called Swartaster, where 
the incessant operation of the waves, indenting a 
calcarious rock, has formed a deep halier, which, in 
the language of the island, means a subterranean 
cavern, into which the tide ebbs and flows. Many 
of these run to an extraordinary and unascertained 
depth under ground, and are the secure retreat of 
cormorants and seals, which it is neither easy nor 
safe to pursue to their extreme recesses. Amongst 
these, this halier of Swartaster was accounted pecu- 
liarly inaccessible, and shunned both by fowlers and 
by seamen, on account of sharp angles and turnings 
in the cave itself, as well as the sunken rocks which 
rendered it very dangerous for skiffs or boats to 


THE PIRATE. 


igt 

advance far into it, especially if there was the usual 
swell of an island tide. F rom the dark-browed mouth 
of this cavern, it seemed to Minna, in her dream, 
that she beheld a mermaid issue, not in the classical 
dress of a Nereid, as in Claud Halcro’s mask of the 
preceding evening, but with comb and glass in hand, 
according to popular belief, and lashing the waves 
with that long scaly train, which, in the traditions 
of the country, forms so frightiul a contrast with the 
fair face, long tresses, and displayed bosom, of a 
human and earthly female, of surpassing beauty. 
She seemed to beckon to Minna, while her wild notes 
rang sadly in her ear, and denounced, in prophetic 
sounds, calamity and woe. 

The vision of Brenda was of a different descrip- 
tion, yet equally melancholy. She sat, as she 
thought, in her favourite bower, surrounded by her 
father and a party of his most beloved friends, 
amongst whom Mordaunt Mertoun was not forgot- 
ten. She was required to sing ; and she strove to 
entertain them with a lively ditty, in which she was 
accounted eminently successful, and which she sung 
with such simple, yet natural humour, as seldom 
failed to produce shouts of laughter and applause, 
while all who could, or who could not sing, were 
irresistibly compelled to lend their voices to the 
chorus. But, on this occasion, it seemed as if her 
own voice refused all its usual duty, and as if, while 
she felt herself unable to express the words of the 
well-known air, it assumed, in her own despite, the 
deep tones and wild and melancholy notes of Norna 
of Fitful-head, for the purpose of chanting some wild 
Runic rhyme, resembling those sung by the heathen 
priests of old, when the victim (too often human) 
was bound to the fatal altar of Odin or of Thor. 


THE PIRATE. 


293 


At length the two sisters at once started from 
sleep, and, uttering a low scream of fear, clasped 
themselves in each other’s arms. E’er their fancy 
had not altogether played them false ; the sounds, 
which had suggested their dreams, were real, and 
sung within their apartment. They knew the 
voice well, indeed, and yet, knowing to whom it 
belonged, their surprise and fear were scarce the 
less, when they saw the well-known Norna of ETt- 
ful-head, seated by the chimney of the apartment, 
which, during the summer season, contained an 
iron lamp well trimmed, and, in winter, a fire of 
wood or of turf. 

She was wrapped in her long and ample garment 
of wadmaal, and moved her body slowly to and fro 
over the pale flame of the lamp, as she sung lines 
to the following purport, in a slow, sad, and almost 
an unearthly accent : 

“ For leagues along the watery way, 

Through gulf and stream my course has been; 

The billows know my Runic lay, 

And smooth their crests to silent green. 

“ The billows know my Runic lay, — 

The gulf grows smooth, the stream is still; 

But human hearts, more wild than they, 

Know but the rule of wayward will. 

“ One hour is mine, in all the year, 

To tell my woes, — and one alone ; 

When gleams this magic lamp, ’tis here, — 

When dies the mystic light, Tis gone. 

Daughters of northern Magnus, hail I 
The lamp is lit, the flame is clear, — 

To you I come to tell my tale, 

AM^ake, arise, my tale to hear 1 


294 


THE PIRATE. 


Norna was well known to the daughters of Troil, 
but it was not without emotion, although varied by 
their respective dispositions, that they beheld her 
so unexpectedly, and at such an hour. Their opin- 
ions with respect to the supernatural attributes to 
which she pretended, were extremely different. 

Minna, with an unusual intensity of imagination, 
although superior in talent to her sister, was more 
apt to listen to, and delight in, every tale of won- 
der, and was at all times more willing to admit im- 
pressions which gave her fancy scope and exercise, 
without minutely examining their reality. Brenda, 
on the other hand, had, in her gaiety, a slight pro- 
pensity to satire, and was often tempted to laugh at 
the very circumstances upon which Minna founded 
her imaginative dreams ; and, like all who love the 
ludicrous, she did not readily suffer herself to be 
imposed upon, or overawed, by pompous preten- 
sions of any kind whatever. But, as her nerves 
were weaker and more irritable than those of her 
sister, she often paid involuntary homage, by her 
fears, to ideas which her reason disowned; and 
hence, Claud- Halcro used to say, in reference to 
many of the traditionary superstitions around 
Burgh-Westra, that Minna believed them without 
trembling, and that Brenda trembled without be- 
lieving them. In our own more enlightened days, 
there are few whose undoubting mind and native 
courage have not fe]t Minna’s high wrought tone 
of enthusiasm ; and perhaps still fewer, who have 
not, at one time or other, felt, like Brenda, their 
nerves confess the influence of terrors which their 
reason disowned and despised. 

Under the power of such different feelings, Minna, 
when the first moment of surprise was over, pre- 


THE PIRATE. 


295 


pared to spring from her bed, and go to greet Norna, 
who, she doubted not, had come on some errand 
fraught with fate ; while Brenda, who only beheld 
in her a woman partially deranged in her under- 
standing, and who yet, from the extravagance of her 
claims, regarded her as an undefined object of awe, 
or rather terror, detained her sister by an eager and 
terrified grasp, while she whispered in her ear an 
anxious entreaty that she would call for assistance. 
But the soul of Minna was too highly wrought up 
by the crisis at which her fate seemed to have ar- 
rived, to permit her to follow the dictates of her sis- 
ter’s fears ; and, extricating herself from Brenda’s 
hold, she hastily threw on a loose nightgown, and, 
stepping boldly across the apartment, while her 
heart throbbed rather with high excitement than 
with fear, she thus addressed her singular visitor : 

Norna, if your mission regards us, as your 
words seem to express, there is one of us, at least, 
who will receive its import with reverence, but 
without fear.” 

“ Norna, dear Norna,” said the tremulous voice 
of Brenda, — who, feeling no safety in the bed after 
Minna quitted it, had followed her, as fugitives 
crowd into the rear of an advancing army, because 
they dare not remain behind, and who now stood 
half concealed by her sister, and holding fast by the 
skirts of her gown, — “ Norna, dear Norna,” said 
she, “ whatever you are to say, let it be to-morrow. 
I will call Euphane Fea, the housekeeper, and she 
will find you a bed for the night.” 

“No bed for me!” said their nocturnal visitor; 
“ no closing of the eyes for me I They have watched 
as shelf and stack appeared and disappeared betwixt 
Burgh- Wes tra and Orkney — they have seen the 


296 


THE PIRATE. 


Man of Hoy sink into the sea, and the Peak of Heng- 
cliff arise from it, and yet they have not tasted of 
slumber; nor must they slumber now till my task 
is ended. Sit down, then, Minna, and thou, silly 
trembler, sit down, while I trim my lamp — Don 
your clothes, for the tale is long, and ere ’tis done, 
ye will shiver with worse than cold.” 

“ For Heaven’s sake, then, put it off till day- 
light, dear Horna ! ” said Brenda ; “ the dawn can- 
not be far distant ; and if you are to tell us of any 
thing frightful, let it be by daylight, and not by the 
dim glimmer of that blue lamp ! ” 

“ Patience, fool ! ” said their uninvited guest. 
“Not by daylight should Norna tell a tale that 
might blot the sun out of heaven, and blight the 
hopes of the hundred boats that will leave this shore 
ere noon, to commence their deep-sea fishing, — ay, 
and of the hundred families that will await their 
return. The demon, whom the sounds will not fail 
to awaken, must shake his dark wings over a ship- 
less and a boatless sea, as he rushes from his moun- 
tain to drink the accents of horror he loves so well 
to listen to.” 

“ Have pity on Brenda’s fears, good Norna,” said 
the elder sister, “ and at least postpone this frightful 
communication to another place and hour.” 

“Maiden, no!” replied Norna, sternly; “it must 
be told while that lamp yet burns. Mine is no day- 
light tale — by that lamp it must be told, which is 
framed out of the gibbet-irons of the cruel Lord of 
Wodensvoe, who murdered his brother; and has for 
its nourishment — but be that nameless — enough 
that its food never came either from the fish or from 
the fruit ! — See, it waxes dim and dimmer, nor must 
my tale last longer than its flame endureth. Sit ye 


THE PIRATE. 


297 


down there, while I sit here opposite to you, and 
place the lamp betwixt us ; for within the sphere 
of its light the demon dares not venture.” 

The sisters obeyed, Minna casting a slow awe- 
struck, yet determined look all around, as if to see 
the Being, who, according to the doubtful words 
of Norna, hovered in their neighbourhood ; while 
Brenda’s fears were mingled with some share both 
of anger and of impatience. Norna paid no atten- 
tion to either, but began her story in the following 
words : — 

“Ye know, my daughters, that your blood is 
allied to mine, but in what degree ye know not ; for 
there was early hostility betwixt your grandsire and 
him who had the misfortune to call me daughter. 
— Let me term him by his Christian name of Erland, 
for that which marks our relation I dare not bestow. 
Your grandsire Olave, was the brother of Erland. 
But when the wide Udal possessions of their father 
Rolfe Troil, the most rich and well estated of any 
who descended from the old Norse stock, were 
divided betwixt the brothers, the Fowd gave to 
Erland his father’s lands in Orkney, and reserved 
for Olave those of Hialtland. Discord arose between 
the brethren ; for Erland held that he was wronged ; 
and when the Lawting,^ with the Raddmen and 
Lawright-men, confirmed the division, he went in 
wrath to Orkney, cursing Hialtland and its inhabi- 
tants — cursing his brother and his blood. 

“ But the love of the rock and of the mountain 
still wrought on Erland’s mind, and he fixed his 
dwelling not on the soft hills of Ophir, or the green 

1 The Lawting was the Coniitia, or Supreme Court, of the 
country, being retained both in Orkney and Zetland, and pre- 
senting, in its constitution, the rude origin of a parliament. 


298 


THE PIRATE. 


plains of Gramesey, but in the wild and mountain- 
ous Isle of Hoy, whose summit rises to the sky like 
the cliffs of Foulah and of Feroe.^ He knew, — 
that unhappy Erland, — whatever of legendary lore 
Scald and Bard had left behind them ; and to teach 
me that knowledge, which was to cost us both so 
dear, was the chief occupation of his old age. I 
learned to visit each lonely barrow — each lofty cairn 
— to tell its appropriate tale, and to soothe with 
rhymes in his praise the spirit of the stern warrior 
who dwelt within. I knew where the sacrifices 
were made of yore to Thor and to Odin, on what 
stones the blood of the victims flowed — where stood 
the dark -browed priest — where the crested chiefs, 
who consulted the will of the idol — where the more 
distant crowd of inferior worshippers, who looked 
on in awe or in terror. The places most shunned 
by the timid peasants had no terrors for me ; I 
dared walk in the fairy circle, and sleep by the 
magic spring. 

“ But, for my misfortune, I was chiefly fond •to 
linger about the Dwarfie Stone, as it is called, a 
relic of antiquity, which strangers look on with 
curiosity, and the natives with awe. It is a huge 
fragment of rock, which lies in a broken and rude 
valley, full of stones and precipices, in the recesses 
of the Ward-hill of Hoy. The inside of the rock has 
two couches, hewn by no earthly hand, and having 
a small passage between them. The doorway is 
now open to the weather ; but beside it lies a large 


1 And from which hill of Hoy, at midsummer, the sun may 
be seen, it is said, at midnight. So says the geographer Bleau, 
although, -according to Dr. Wallace, it cannot be the true body 
of the sun which is visible, but only its image refracted through 
some watery cloud upon the horizon. 


THE PIRATE. 


299 


stone, which, adapted to grooves still visible in the 
entrance, once had served to open and to close this 
extraordinary dwelling, which Trolld, a dwarf famous 
in the northern Sagas, is said to have framed 
for his own favourite residence. The lonely shep- 
herd avoids the place ; for at sunrise, high noon, 
or sunset, the misshapen form of the necromantic 
owner may sometimes still be seen sitting by the 
Dwarfie Stone.^ I feared not the apparition, for, 
Minna, my heart was as bold, and my hand was as 
innocent, as yours. In my childish courage, I was 
even but too presumptuous, and the thirst after 
things unattainable led me, like our primitive 
mother, to desire increase of knowledge, even by 
prohibited means. I longed to possess the power of 
the Voluspse and divining women of our ancient 
race; to wield, like them, command over the ele- 
ments ; and to summon the ghosts of deceased 
heroes from their caverns, that they might recite 
their daring deeds, and impart to me their hidden 
treasures. Often when watching by the Dwarfie 
Stone, with mine eyes fixed on the Ward-hill, 
which rises above that gloomy valley, I have distin- 
guished, among the dark rocks, that wonderful car- 
buncle,2 ( p) which gleams ruddy as a furnace to them 
who view it from beneath, but has ever become in- 
visible to him whose daring foot has scaled the pre- 
cipices from which it darts its splendour. My vain 
and youthful bosom burned to investigate these and 
an hundred other mysteries, which the Sagas that 
I perused, or learned from Erland, rather indicated 
than explained; and in my daring mood, I called 

1 Note VIII. — The Dwarfie Stone. 

2 Note IX. — Carbuncle on the Ward-hill. 


300 


THE PIRATE. 


on the Lord of the Dwarfie Stone to aid me iii 
attaining knowledge inaccessible to mere mortals.” 

“ And the evil spirit h^ard your summons ? ” said 
Minna, her blood curdling as she listened. 

“ Hush,” said Norna, lowering her voice, “ vex 
him not with reproach — he is with us — he hears us 
even now.” 

Brenda started from her seat. — “I will to Eu- 
phane Fea’s chamber,” she said, “and leave you, 
Minna and Norna, to finish your stories of hobgob- 
lins and of dwarfs at your own leisure ; I care not 
for them at any time, but I will not endure them 
at midnight, and by this pale lamplight.” 

She was accordingly in the act of leaving the 
room, when her sister detained her. 

“ Is this the courage,” she said, “ of her, that 
disbelieves whatever the history of our fathers tells 
us of supernatural prodigy ? What Norna has to 
tell concerns the fate, perhaps, of our father and 
his house ; — if I can listen to it, trusting that God 
and my innocence will protect me from all that is 
malignant, you, Brenda, who believe not in such 
influence, have surely no cause to tremble. Credit 
me, that for the guiltless there is no fear.” 

“ There may be no danger,” said Brenda, unable 
to suppress her natural turn for humour, “ but, as 
the old jest book says, there is much fear. How- 
ever, Minna, I will stay with you ; — the rather,” 
she added, in a whisper, “ that I am loath to leave 
you alone with this frightful woman, and that I 
have a dark staircase and long passage betwixt 
and Euphane Fea, else I would have her here ere 
I were five minutes older.” 

“ Call no one hither, maiden, upon peril of thy 
life,” said Norna, “ and interrupt not my tale again ; 


THE PIRATE. 


301 

for it cannot and must not be told after that charmed 
light has ceased to burn.” 

“And I thank heaven,” said Brenda to herself, 
“ that the oil burns low in the cruize ! I am sorely 
tempted to lend it a puff, but then Norna would be 
alone with us in the dark, and that would be worse.” 

So saying, she submitted to her fate, and sat 
down, determined to listen with all the equanimity 
which she could command to the remaining part of 
Norna’s tale, which went on as follows : — 

“It happened on a hot summer day, and just 
about the hour of noon,” continued Norna, “ as I sat 
by the Dwarfie Stone, with my eyes fixed on the 
Ward-hill, whence the mysterious and ever-burning 
carbuncle shed its rays more brightly than usual, 
and repined in my heart at the restricted bounds 
of human knowledge, that at length I could not 
help exclaiming, in the words of an ancient Saga, 

‘ Dwellers of the mountain, rise, 

Trolld the powerful, Haims the wise ! 

Ye who taught weak woman’s tongue 
Words that sway the wise and strong, — 

Ye who taught weak woman’s hand 
How to wield the magic wand. 

And wake the gales on Foulah’s steep, 

Or lull wild Sumburgh’s waves to sleep ! — 

Still are ye yet ? — Not yours the power 
Ye knew in Odin’s mightier hour. 

What are ye now but empty names, 

Powerful Trolld, sagacious Haims, 

That, lightly spoken, lightly heard. 

Float on the air like thistle’s beard V 

“I had scarce uttered these words,” proceeded 
Norna, “ ere the sky, which had been till then un- 
usually clear, grew so suddenly dark around me, that 
it seemed more like midnight than noon. A single 


302 


THE PIRATE. 


flash of lightning showed me at once the desolate 
landscape of heath, morass, mountain, and precipice, 
which lay around ; a single clap of thunder wakened 
all the echoes of the Ward-hill, which continued 
so long to repeat the sound, that it seemed some 
rock, rent by the thunderbolt from the summit, 
was rolling over cliff and precipice into the valley. 
Immediately after, fell a burst of rain so violent, 
that I was fain to shun its pelting, by creeping 
into the interior of the mysterious stone. 

“ I seated myself on the larger stone couch, which 
is cut at the farther end of the cavity, and, with 
my eyes fixed on the smaller bed, wearied myself 
with conjectures respecting the origin and purpose 
of my singular place of refuge. Had it been really 
the work of that powerful Trolld, to whom the 
poetry of the Scalds referred it ? Or was it the 
tomb of some Scandinavian chief, interred with his 
arms and his wealth, perhaps also with his immo- 
lated wife, that what he loved best in life might 
not in death be divided from him ? Or was it the 
abode of penance, chosen by some devoted ancho- 
rite of later days ? Or the idle work of some wan- 
dering mechanic, whom chance, and whim, and 
leisure, had thrust upon such an undertaking ? I 
tell you the thoughts that then floated through my 
brain, that ye may know that what ensued was not 
the vision of a prejudiced or prepossessed imagination, 
but an apparition, as certain as it was awful. 

Sleep had gradually crept on me, amidst my lu- 
cubrations, when I was startled from my slumbers 
by a second clap of thunder ; and, when I awoke, 
T saw, through the dim light which the upper aper- 
ture admitted, the unshapely and indistinct form 
of Trolld the dwarf, seated opposite to me on the 


THE PIRATE. 


303 


lesser couch, which his square and misshapen bulk 
seemed absolutely to fill up. I was startled, but 
not affrighted ; for the blood of the ancient race of 
Lochlin was -warm in my veins. He spoke ; and 
his words were of Norse, so old, that few, save my 
father, or I myself, could have comprehended their 
import, — such language as was spoken in these 
islands ere Olave planted the cross on the ruins of 
heathenism. His meaning was dark also and ob- 
scure, like that which the Pagan priests were wont 
to deliver, in the name of their idols, to the tribes 
that assembled at the Helgafels} This was the 
import, — 

‘ A thousand winters dark have flown, 

Since o’er the threshold of my Stone 
A votaress pass’d, my power to own. 

Visitor bold 

Of the mansion of Trolld, 

Maiden haughty of heart, 

Who hast hither presumed, — 

Ungifted, undoom’d. 

Thou shalt not depart; 

The power thou dost covet 
O’er tempest and wave. 

Shall be thine, thou proud maiden. 

By beach and by cave, — 

By stack * and by skerry,® by noup ^ and by voe,® 

By air ® and by wick,"^ and by helyer ® and gio,^ 

1 Or consecrated mountain, used by the Scandinavian priests foi 
the purposes of their idol-worship. 

2 Stack. A precipitous rock, rising out of the sea. 

8 Skerry. A flat insulated rock, not subject to the overflow- 
ing of the sea. 

^ Noup. A round-headed eminence. 

® Voe. A creek, or inlet of the sea. 

® Air. An open sea-beach. 

t Wick. An open bay. 

8 Helyer. A cavern into which the tide flows. 

® Gio. A deep ravine which admits the sea. 


304 


THE PIRATE. 


And by every wild shore which the northern winds know, 
And the northern tides lave. 

But though this shall be given thee, thou desperately brave. 

I doom thee that never the gift thou shalt have, 

Till thou reave thy life’s giver 
Of the gift which he gave.’ 

‘‘ I answered him in nearly the same strain ; for 
the spirit of the ancient Scalds of our race was 
upon me, and, far from fearing the phantom, with 
whom I sat cooped within so narrow a space, I felt 
the impulse of that high courage which thrust the 
ancient Champions and Druidesses upon contests 
with the invisible world, when they thought that 
the earth no longer contained enemies worthy to be 
subdued by them. Therefore did I answer him 
thus : — 

‘ Dark are thy words, and severe, 

Thou dweller in the stone ; 

But trembling and fear 
To her are unknown, 

Who hath sought thee here. 

In thy dwelling lone. 

Come what conies soever. 

The worst I can endure; 

Life is but a short fever. 

And Death is the cure.’ 

"The Demon scowled at me, as if at once in- 
censed and overawed ; and then coiling himself up 
in a thick and sulphureous vapour, he disappeared 
from his place. I did not, till that moment, feel 
the influence of fright, but then it seized me. I 
rushed into the open air, where the tempest had 
passed away, and all was pure and serene. After 
a moment’s breathless pause, I hasted home, mus- 
ing by the way on the words of the phantom, which 


THE PIRATE. 


305 


I could not, as often happens, recall so distinctly 
to memory at the time, as I have been able to do 
since. 

• “It may seem strange that such an apparition 
should, in time, have glided from my mind, like a 
vision of the night — but so it was. I brought my- 
self to believe it the work of fancy — I thought I 
had lived too much in solitude, and had given way 
too much to the feelings inspired by my favourite 
studies. I abandoned them for a time, and I mixed 
with the youth of my age. I was upon a visit at 
Kirkwall when I learned to know your father, 
whom business had brought thither. He easily 
found access to the relation with whom I lived, who 
was anxious to compose, if possible, the feud which 
divided our families. Your father, maidens, has 
been rather hardened than changed by years — he 
had the same manly form, the same old Norse 
frankness of manner and of heart, the same up- 
right courage and honesty of disposition, with more 
of the gentle ingenuousness of youth, an eager de- 
sire to please, a willingness to be pleased, and a 
vivacity of spirits which survives not our early 
years. But though he was thus worthy of love, 
and though Erland wrote to me, authorizing his 
attachment, there was another — a stranger, Minna, 
a fatal stranger — full of arts unknown to us, and 
graces which to the plain manners of your father 
were unknown. Yes, he walked, indeed, among us 
like a being of another and of a superior race. — Ye 
look on me as if it were strange that I should have 
had attractions for such a lover; but I present 
nothing that can remind you that Norna of the 
Fitful-head was once admired and loved as Ulla 
Troil — the change betwixt the animated body and 
YOL. I. — 20 


3o6 


THE PIRATE. 


the corpse after disease, is scarce more awful and 
absolute than I have sustained, while I yet linger 
on earth. Look on me, maidens — look on me by 
this glimmering light — Can ye believe that these* 
haggard and weather-wasted features — these eyes, 
which have been almost converted to stone, by 
looking upon sights of terror — these locks, that, 
mingled with grey, now stream out, the shattered 
pennons of a sinking vessel — that these, and she to 
whom they belong, could once be the objects of fond 
affection ? — But the waning lamp sinks fast, and 
let it sink while I tell my infamy. — We loved in 
secret, we met in secret, till I gave the last proof 
of fatal and of guilty p^-ssion ! — And now beam out, 
thou magic glimmer — shine out a little space, thou 
flame so powerful even in thy feebleness — bid him 
who hovers near us, keep his dark pinions aloof 
from the circle thou dost illuminate — live but a 
little till the worst be told, and then sink when 
thou wilt into darkness, as black as my guilt and 
sorrow ! ” 

While she spoke thus, she drew together the 
remaining nutriment of the lamp, and trimmed its 
decaying flame ; then again, with a hollow voice, 
and in broken sentences, pursued her narrative. 

“ I must waste little time in words. My love 
was discovered, but not my guilt. Erland came to 
Pomona in anger, and transported me to our solitary 
dwelling in Hoy. Hq commanded me to see my 
lover no more, and to receive Magnus, in whom he 
was willing to forgive the offences of his father, as 
my future husband. Alas, I no longer deserved his 
attachment — my only wish was to escape from my 
father’s dwelling, to conceal my shame in my lover’s 
arms. Let me do him justice — he was faithful — 


THE PIRATE. 


307 


too, too faithful — his perfidy would have bereft me 
of my senses ; but the fatal consequences of his 
fidelity have done me a tenfold injury.” 

She paused, and then resumed, with the wild, tone 
of insanity, “ It has made me the powerful and the 
despairing Sovereign of the Seas and Winds ! ” 

She paused a second time after this wild exclama- 
tion, and resumed her narrative in a more composed 
manner. 

“My lover came in secret to Hoy, to concert 
measures for my flight, and I agreed to meet 
him, that we might fix the time when his vessel 
should come into the Sound. I left the house at 
midnight.” 

Here she appeared to gasp with agony, and went 
on with her tale by broken and interrupted sen- 
tences. “ I left the house at midnight — I had to 
pass my father’s door, and I perceived it was open 
— I thought he watched us ; and, that the sound of 
my steps might not break his slumbers, I closed the 
fatal door — a light and trivial action — but, God in 
Heaven! what were the consequences! — At morn, 
the room was full of suffocating vapour — my father 
was dead — dead through my act — dead through my 
disobedience — dead through my infamy ! All that 
follows is mist and darkness — a choking, suffoca- 
ting, stifling mist envelopes all that I said and did, 
all that was said and done, until I became assured 
that my doom was accomplished, and walked forth 
the calm and terrible being you now behold me — 
the Queen of the Elements — the sharer in the power 
of those bmngs to whom man and his passions give 
such sport as the tortures of the dog-fish afford the 
fisherman, when he pierces his eyes with thorns, 
and turns him once more into his native element, to 


3o8 


THE PIRATE. 


traverse the waves in blindness and agony No, 
maidens, she whom you see before you is impassive 
to the follies of which your minds are the sport. I 
am she that have made the offering — I am she that 
bereaved the giver of the gift of life which he gave 
me — the dark saying has been interpreted by my 
deed, and I am taken from humanity, to be something 
pre-eminently powerful, pre-eminently wretched ! ” 

As she spoke thus, the light, which had been long 
quivering, leaped high for an instant, and seemed 
about to expire, when Norna, interrupting herself, 
said hastily, “No more now — he comes — he comes 
— Enough that ye know me, and the right I have 
to advise and command you. — Approach now, 
proud Spirit ! if thou wilt.” 

So saying, she extinguished the lamp, and passed 
out of the apartment with her usual loftiness of 
step, as Minna could observe from its measured 
cadence. 

1 This cruelty is practised by some fishers, out of a vindictive 
hatred to these ravenous fishes. 


CHAPTEE XX. 


Is all the counsel that we two have shared— 

The sisters’ vows, the hours that we have spent, 

When we have chid the hastj-footed time 
For parting us — O, and is all forgot ? 

Midsummer-Night* s Dream. 

The attention of Minna was powerfully arrested' 
by this tale of terror, which accorded with and ex- 
plained many broken hints respecting Norna, which 
she had heard from her father and other near rela- 
tions, and she was for a time so lost in surprise, 
not unmingled with horror, that she did not even 
attempt to speak to her sister Brenda. When, at 
length, she called her by her name, she received no 
answer, and, on touching her hand, she found it cold 
as ice. Alarmed to the uttermost, she threw open 
the lattice and the window-shutters, and admitted 
at once the free air and the pale glimmer of the 
hyperborean summer night. She then became 
sensible that her sister was in a swoon. All 
thoughts concerning Norna, her frightful tale, and 
her mysterious connexion with the invisible world, 
at once vanished from Minna’s thoughts, and she 
hastily ran to the apartment of the old housekeeper, 
to summon her aid, without reflecting for a moment 
what sights she might encounter in the long dark 
passages which she had to traverse. 

The old woman hastened to Brenda’s assistance, 
and instantly applied such remedies as her experb 


310 


THE PIRATE. 


ence suggested ; but the poor girl’s nervous system 
had been so much agitated by the horrible tale she 
had just heard, that, when recovered from her swoon, 
her utmost endeavours to compose her mind could 
not prevent her falling into a hysterical fit of some 
duration. This also was subdued by the experience 
of old Euphane Fea, who was well versed in all the 
simple pharmacy used by the natives of Zetland, 
and who, after administering a composing draught, 
distilled from simples and wild flowers, at length 
saw her patient resigned to sleep. Minna stretched 
herself beside her sister, kissed her cheek, and 
courted slumber in her turn ; but the more she 
invoked it, the farther it seemed to fly from her 
eyelids ; and if at times she was disposed to sink 
into repose, the voice of the involuntary parricide 
seemed again to sound in her ears, and startled her 
into consciousness. 

The early morning hour at which they were ac- 
customed to rise, found the state of the sisters dif- 
ferent from what might have been expected. A 
sound sleep had restored the spirit of Brenda’s light- 
some eye, and the rose on her laughing cheek ; the 
transient indisposition of the preceding night having 
left as little trouble on her look, as the fantastic 
terrors of Noma’s tale had been able to impress on 
her imagination. The looks of Minna, on the con- 
trary, were melancholy, downcast, and apparently 
exhausted by watching and anxiety. They said at 
first little to each other, as if afraid of touching a 
subject so fraught with emotion as the scene of 
the preceding night. It was not until they had 
performed together their devotions, as usual, that 
Brenda, while lacing Minna’s boddice, (for they 
rendered the services of the toilet to each other 


THE PIRATE. 


31 


reciprocally,) became aware of the paleness of her 
sister’s looks ; and having ascertained, by a glance 
at the mirror, that her own did not wear the same 
dejection, she kissed Minna’s cheek, and said affec- 
tionately, “ Claud Halcro was right, my dearest 
sister, when his poetical folly gave us these names 
of Night and Day.” 

“ And wherefore should you say so now ? ” said 
Minna. 

“ Because we each are bravest in the season that 
we take our name from : I was frightened wellnigh 
to death, by hearing those things last night, which 
you endured with courageous firmness ; and now, 
when it is broad light, T can think of them with 
composure, while you look as pale as a spirit who 
is surprised by sunrise.” 

“ You are lucky, Brenda,” said her sister, gravely, 
“ who can so soon forget such a tale of wonder and 
horror.” 

“ The horror,” said Brenda, “ is never to be for- 
gotten, unless one could hope that the unfortunate 
woman’s excited imagination, which shows itself so 
active in conjuring up apparitions, may have fixed 
on her an imaginary crime.” 

“ You believe nothing, then,” said Minna, “ of her 
interview at the D war fie Stone, that wondrous place, 
of which so many tales are told, and which, for so 
many centuries, has been reverenced as the work of 
a demon, and as his abode ? ” 

“ I believe,” said Brenda, “ that our unhappy rela- 
tive is no impostor, — and therefore I believe that 
she was at the Dwarfie Stone during a thunder- 
storm, that she sought shelter in it, and that, during 
a swoon, or during sleep perhaps, some dream visited 
her, concerned with the popular traditions with which 


THE PIRATE. 


312 

she was so conversant ; but I cannot easily believe 
more.” 

“ And yet the event,” said Minna, “ corresponded 
to the dark intimations of the vision.” 

“Pardon me,” said Brenda, “I rather think the 
dream would never have been put into shape, or 
perhaps remembered at all, but for the event. She 
told us herself she had nearly forgot the vision, till 
after her father’s dreadful death, — and who shall 
warrant how much of what she then supposed her- 
self to remember was not the creation of her own 
fancy, disordered as it naturally was by the horrid 
accident ? Had she really seen and conversed with 
a necromantic dwarf, she was likely to remember 
the conversation long enough — at least I am sure I 
should.” 

“ Brenda,” replied Minna, “ you have heard the 
good minister of the Cross-Kirk say, that human 
wisdom was worse than folly, when it was applied 
to mysteries beyond its comprehension ; and that, if 
we believed no more than we could understand, we 
should resist the evidence of our senses, which pre- 
sented us, at every turn, circumstances as certain ^s 
they were unintelligible.” 

“ You are too learned yourself, sister,” answered 
Brenda, “ to need the assistance of the good min- 
ister of Cross-Kirk ; but I think his doctrine only 
related to the mysteries of our religion, which it is 
our duty to receive without investigation or doubt 
— but in things occurring in common life, as God 
has bestowed reason upon us, we cannot act wrong 
in employing it. But you, my dear Minna, have a 
warmer fancy than mine, and are willing to receive 
all those wonderful stories for truth, because you 
love to think of sorcerers, and dwarfs, and water- 


THE PIRATE. 


313 


spirits, and would like much to have a little trow, 
or fairy, as tlie Scotch call them, with a green coat, 
and a pair of wings as brilliant as the hues of the 
starling’s neck, specially to attend on you.” 

“ It would spare you at least the trouble of lacing 
my boddice,” said Minna, “ and of lacing it wrong, 
too; for in the heat of your argument you have 
missed two eyelet-holes.” 

“That error shall be presently mended,” said 
Brenda ; “ and then, as one of our friends might say, 
I will haul tight and belay — but you draw youi 
breath so deeply, that it will be a difficult matter.” 

“ I only sighed,” said Minna, in some confusion, 
“ to think how soon you can trifle with and ridicule 
the misfortunes of this extraordinary woman.” 

“ I do not ridicule them, God knows ! ” replied 
Brenda, somewhat angrily; “it is you, Minna, who 
turn all I say in truth and kindness, to something 
harsh or wicked. I look on Norna as a woman of 
very extraordinary abilities, which are very often 
united with a strong cast of insanity ; and I con- 
sider her as better skilled in the signs of the weather 
than any woman in Zetland. But that she has 
any power over the elements, I no more believe, 
than I do in the nursery stories of King Erick, who 
could make the wind blow from the point he set his 
cap to.” 

Minna, somewhat nettled with the obstinate in- 
credulity of her sister, replied sharply, “And yet, 
Brenda, this woman — half-mad woman, and the 
veriest impostor — is the person by whom you choose 
to be advised in the matter next your own heart at 
this moment ! ” 

“ I do not know what you mean,” said Brenda, 
colouring deeply, and shifting to get away from het 


314 


THE PIRATE. 


sister. But as she was now undergoing the cere- 
mony of being laced in her turn, her sister had the 
means of holding her fast by the silken string with 
which she was fastening the boddice, and, tapping 
her on the neck, which expressed, by its sudden 
writhe, and sudden change to a scarlet hue, as much 
pettish confusion as she had desired to provoke, she 
added, more mildly, “ Is it not strange, Brenda, 
that, used as we have been by the stranger Mor- 
daunt Mertoun, whose assurance has brought him 
uninvited to a house where his presence is so unac- 
ceptable, you should still look or think of him with 
favour ? Surely, that you do so should be a proof 
to you, that there are such things as spells in the 
country, and that you yourself labour under them. 
It is not for nought that Mordaunt wears a chain 
of elfin gold — look to it, Brenda, and be wise in 
time.” 

“ I have nothing to do with Mordaunt Mertoun,’* 
answered Brenda, hastily, “ nor do I know or care 
what he or any other young man wears about his 
neck. I could see all the gold chains of all the bai- 
lies of Edinburgh, that Lady Glowrowrum speaks so 
much of, without falling in fancy with one of the 
wearers.” And, having thus complied with the fe- 
male rule of pleading not guilty in general to such 
an indictment, she immediately resumed, in a differ- 
ent tone, “ But, to say the truth, Minna, I think you, 
and all of you, have judged far too hastily about this 
young friend of ours, who has been so long our most 
intimate companion. Mind, Mordaunt Mertoun is 
no more to me than he is to you — who best know' 
how little difference he made betwixt us ; and that, 
chain or no chain, he lived with us like a brother 
with two sisters ; and yet you can turn- him off at 


THE PIRATE. 


31S 

once, because a wandering seaman, of wbom we 
know nothing, and a peddling jagger, whom we do 
know to be a thief, a cheat, and a liar, speak words 
and carry tales in his disfavour ! I do not believe he 
ever said he could have his choice of either of us, 
and only waited to see which was to have Burgh- 
Westra and Bredness Voe — I do not believe he ever 
spoke such a word, or harboured such a thought, as 
that of making a choice between us.” 

“Perhaps,” said Minna, coldly, “you may have 
had reason to know that his choice was already 
determined.” 

“I will not endure this !” said Brenda, giving way 
to her natural vivacity, and springing from between 
her sister’s hands ; then turning round and facing 
her, while her glowing cheek was rivalled in the 
deepness of its crimson, by as much of her neck and 
bosom as the upper part of the half-laced boddice 
permitted to be visible, — “ Even from you, Minna,” 
she said, “ I will not endure this ! You know that 
all my life I have spoken the truth, and that I love 
the truth ; and I tell you, that Mordaunt Mertoun 
never in his life made distinction betwixt you and 
me, until 

Here some feeling of consciousness stopped her 
short, and her sister replied, with a smile, “ Until 
when, Brenda ? Methinks, your love of truth seems 
choked with the sentence you were bringing out.” 

“ Until you ceased to do him the justice he de- 
serves,” said Brenda, firmly, “since I must speak 
out. I have little doubt that he will not long 
throw away his friendship on you, who hold it so 
lightly.” 

“ Be it so,” said Minna ; “ you are secure from 
my rivalry, either in his friendship or love. But 


3i6 


THE PIRATE. 


bethink you better, Brenda — this is no scandal of 
Cleveland’s — Cleveland is incapable of slander — 
no falsehood of Bryce Snailsfoot — not one of our 
friends or acquaintance but says it has been the 
common talk of the island, that the daughters of 
Magnus Troil were patiently awaiting the choice of 
the nameless and birthless stranger, Mordaunt 
Mertoun. Is it fitting that this should be said of 
us, the descendants of a Norwegian Jarl, and the 
daughters of the first Udaller in Zetland ? or, 
would it be modest or maidenly to submit to it 
unresented, were we the meanest lasses that ever 
lifted a milk-pail ? ” 

“The tongues of fools are no reproach,” replied 
Brenda, warmly ; “ I will never quit my own thoughts 
of an innocent friend for the gossip of the island, 
which can put the worst meaning on the most inno- 
cent actions.’* 

“ Hear but what our friends say,” repeated Minna ; 
“ hear but the Lady Glowrowrum ; hear but Maddie 
and Clara Groatsettar.” 

“ If I were to hear Lady Glowrowrum,” said 
Brenda, steadily, “I should listen to the worst 
tongue in Zetland; and as for Maddie and Clara 
Groatsettar, they were both blithe enough to get 
Mordaunt to sit betwixt them at dinner the day 
before yesterday, as you might have observed your- 
self, but that your ear was better engaged.” 

“ Your eyes, at least, have been but indifferently 
engaged, Brenda,” retorted the elder sister, “since 
they were fixed on a young man, whom all the 
world but yourself believes to have talked of us with 
the most insolent presumption ; and even if he be 
innocently charged. Lady Glowrowrum says it is 
unmaidenly and bold of you even to look in the 


THE PIRATE. 


317 


direction where he sits, knowing it must confirm 
such reports.” 

“ I will look which way I please,” said Brenda, 
growing still warmer; “Lady Glowrowrum shall 
neither rule my thoughts, nor my words, nor my 
eyes. I hold Mordaunt Mertoun to be innocent, — 
I will look at him as such, — I will speak of him as 
such ; and if I did not speak to him also, and be- 
have to him as usual, it is in obedience to my father, 
and not for what Lady Glowrowrum, and all her 
nieces, had she twenty instead of two, could think, 
wink, nod, or tattle, about the matter that concerns 
them not.” 

“ Alas ! Brenda,” answered Minna, with calm- 
ness, “ this vivacity is more than is required for the 
defence of the character of a mere friend ! — Be- 
ware — He who ruined Norna’s peace for ever, was 
a stranger, admitted to her affections against the 
will of her family.” 

“ He was a stranger,” replied Brenda, with em- 
phasis, “not only in birth, but in manners. She 
had not been bred up with him from her youth, — 
she had not known the gentleness, the frankness, of 
his disposition, by an intimacy of many years. He 
was indeed a stranger, in character, temper, birth, 
manners, and morals, — some wandering adventurer, 
perhaps, whom chance or tempest had thrown upon 
the islands, and who knew how to mask a false 
heart with a frank brow. My good sister, take 
home your own warning. There are other stran- 
gers at Burgh- Westra besides this poor Mordaunt 
Mertoun.” 

Minna seemed for a moment overwhelmed with 
the rapidity with which her sister retorted her sus- 
picion and her caution. But her natural loftiness 


3i8 


THE PIRATE. 


of disposition enabled her to reply with assumed 
composure. 

“ Were I to treat you, Brenda, with the want of 
confidence you show towards me, I might reply that 
Cleveland is no more to me than Mordaunt was ; 
or than young Swartaster, or Lawrence Ericson, or 
any other favourite guest of my father’s, now is. 
But I scorn to deceive you, or to disguise my 
thoughts. — I love Clement Cleveland.” 

“ Do not say so, my dearest sister,” said Brenda, 
abandoning at once the air of acrimony with which 
the conversation had been latterly conducted, and 
throwing her arms round her sister’s neck, with 
looks, and with a tone, of the most earnest affection, 
— “do not say so, I implore you ! I will reijounce 
Mordaunt Mertoun, — I will swear never to speak 
to him again ; but do not repeat that you love this 
Cleveland ! ” 

“ And why should I not repeat,” said Minna, dis- 
engaging herself gently from her sister’s grasp, “ a 
sentiment in which I glory ? The boldness, the 
strength and energy, of his character, to which com- 
mand is natural, and fear unknown, — these very 
properties, which alarm you for my happiness, are 
the qualities which ensure it. Remember, Brenda, 
that when your foot loved the calm smooth sea-beach 
of the summer sea, mine ever delighted in the sum- 
mit of the precipice, when the waves are in fury.” 

“ And it is even that which I dread,” said Brenda ; 
“it is even that adventurous disposition which 
now is urging you to the brink of a precipice more 
dangerous than ever was washed by a spring-tide. 
This man, — do not frown, I will say no slander of 
him, — but is he not, even in your own partial judg- 
ment, stern and overbearing ? accustomed, as you 


THE ElRATE. 


319 


say, to command ; but, for that very reason, com- 
manding where he has no right to do so, and lead- 
ing whom it would most become him to follow ? 
rushing on danger, rather for its own sake, than for 
any other object ? And can you think of being 
yoked with a spirit so unsettled and stormy, whose 
life has hitherto been led in scenes of death and 
peril, and who, even while sitting by your side, can- 
not disguise his impatience again to engage in them ? 
A lover, methinks, should love his mistress better 
than his own life ; but yours, my dear Minna, loves 
her less than the pleasure of inflicting death on 
others.” 

“ And it is even for that I love him,” said Minna. 
“ I am a daughter of the old dames of Norway, who 
could send their lovers to battle with a smile, and 
slay them, with their own hands, if they returned 
with dishonour. My lover must scorn the mockeries 
by which our degraded race strive for distinction, 
or must practise them only in sport, and in earnest 
of nobler dangers. No whale-striking, bird-nesting 
favourite for me ; my lover must be a Sea-king, or 
what else modern times may give that draws near 
to that lofty character.” 

“ Alas, my sister ! ” said Brenda, “ it is now that 
I must in earnest begin to believe the force of spells 
and of charms. You remember the Spanish story 
which you took from me long since, because I said, 
in your admiration of the chivalry of the olden times 
of Scandinavia, you rivalled the extravagance of the 
hero. — Ah, Minna, your colour shows that your 
conscience checks you, and reminds you of the book 
I mean ; — is it more wise, think you, to mistake a 
windmill for a giant, or the commander of a paltry 
corsair for a Kiempe, or a Vi-king ? ” 


320 


THE PIRATE. 


Minna did indeed colour with anger at this in- 
sinuation, of which, perhaps, she felt in some degree 
the truth. 

“You have a right,” she said, “to insult me, 
because you are possessed of my secret.” 

Brenda’s soft heart could not resist this charge of 
unkindness ; she adjured her sister to pardon her, 
and the natural gentleness of Minna’s feelings could 
not resist her entreaties. 

“We are unhappy,” she said, as she dried her 
sister’s tears, “ that we cannot see with the same- 
eyes — let us not make each other more so by mu- 
tual insult and unkindness. You have my secret — 
it will not, perhaps, long be one, for my father shall 
have the confidence to which he is entitled, so soon 
as certain circumstances will permit me to offer it. 
Meantime, I repeat, you have my secret, and I 
more than suspect that I have yours in exchange, 
though you refuse to own it.” 

“ How, Minna ! ” said Brenda ; “ would you have 
me acknowledge for any one such feelings as you 
allude to, ere he has said the least word that could 
justify such a confession ? ” 

“ Surely not ; but a hidden fire may be distin- 
guished by heat as well as flame.” 

“You understand these signs, Minna,” said Brenda, 
hanging down her head, and in vain endeavouring 
to suppress the temptation to repartee which her 
sifter’s remark offered ; “ but I can only say, that, 
if ever I love at all, it shall not be until I have 
been asked to do so once or twice at least, which 
has not yet chanced to me. But do not let us 
renew our quarrel, and rather let us think why 
Horn a should have told us that horrible tale, and 
to what she expects it should lead.” 


THE PIRATE. 


321 


“ It must have been as a caution,” replied Minna 
— “a caution which our situation, and, I will not 
deny it, which mine in particular, might seem to 
her to call for ; — but I am alike strong in my own 
innocence, and in the honour of Cleveland.” 

Brenda would fain have replied, that she did not 
confide so absolutely in the latter security as in 
the first ; but she was prudent, and, forbearing to 
awaken the former painful discussion, only replied, 
“ It is strange that Norna should have said nothing 
more of her lover. Surely he could not desert her 
in the extremity of misery to which he had reduced 
her ? ” 

“ There may be agonies of distress,” said Minna, 
after a pause, “ in which the mind is so much 
jarred, that it ceases to be responsive even to the 
feelings which have most engrossed it ; — her sor- 
row for her lover may have been swallowed up in 
horror and despair.” 

“ Or he might have fled from the islands, in fear 
of our father’s vengeance,” replied Brenda. 

“ If for fear, or faintness of heart,” said Minna, 
looking upwards, “he was capable of flying from 
the ruin which he had occasiorred, I trust he has 
long ere this sustained the punishment which 
Heaven reserves for the most base and dastardly of 
traitors and of cowards. — Come, sister, we are ere 
this expected at the breakfast board.” 

And they went thither, arm in arm, with much 
more of confidence than had lately subsisted be- 
tween them; the little quarrel which had taken 
place having served the purpose of a hourasque, or 
sudden squall, which dispels mists and vapours, and 
leaves fair weather behind it. 

On their way to the breakfast apartment, they 

VOL, T. — 21 


THE TIRATE. 


322 

agreed that it was unnecessary, and might be im- 
prudent, to communicate to their father the cir- 
cumstance of the nocturnal visit, or to let him 
observe that they now knew more than formerly of 
the melancholy history of Norna. 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


Note I., p. 22. — Norse Fragments. 

Near the conclusion of Chapter II. it is noticed that the old 
Norwegian sagas were preserved and often repeated by the 
fishermen of Orkney and Zetland, while that language was not 
yet quite forgotten. Mr. Baikie of Tankerness, a most respect- 
able inhabitant of Kirkwall, and an Orkney proprietor, assured 
me of the following curious fact. 

A clergyman, who was not long deceased, remembered well 
when some remnants of the Norse were still spoken in the 
island called North Ronaldshaw. When Gray’s Ode, entitled 
the “ Fatal Sisters,” was first published, or at least first reached 
that remote island, the reverend gentleman had the well-judged 
curiosity to read it to some of the old persons of the isle, as a 
poem which regarded the history of their own country. They 
listened with great attention to the preliminary stanzas : — 

“Now the storm begins to lour, 

Haste the loom of hell prepare. 

Iron sleet of arrowry shower 
Hurtles in the darken’d air.” 

But when they had heard a verse or two more, they inter- 
rupted the reader, telling him they knew the song well in the 
Norse language, and had often sung it to him when he asked 
them for an old song. They called it the Magicians, or the 
Enchantresses. It would have been singular news to the ele- 
gant translator, when executing his version from the text of 
Bartholine, to have learned that the Norse original was still 
preserved by tradition in a remote corner of the British domi- 
nions. The circumstances will probably justify what is said in 
the text concerning the traditions of the inhabitants of those 
remote isles, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 


324 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


Even yet, though the Norse language is entirely disused, ex- 
cept in so far as particular words and phrases are still retained, 
these fishers of the Ultima Thule are a generation much at- 
tached to these ancient legends. Of this the author learned a 
singular instance. 

About twenty years ago, a missionary clergyman had taken 
the resolution of traversing those wild islands, where he sup- 
posed there might be a lack of religious instruction, which he 
believed himself capable of supplying. After being some days 
at sea in an open boat, he arrived at North Ronaldshaw, where 
his appearance excited great speculation. He was a very little 
man, dark-complexioned, and from the fatigue he had sustained 
in removing from one island to another, appeared before them 
ill-dressed and unshaved ; so that the inhabitants set him 
down as one of the Ancient Piets, or, as they call them with 
the usual strong guttural, Peghts. How they might have re- 
ceived the poor preacher in this character, was at least dubious ; 
and the schoolmaster of the parish, who had given quarters to 

the fatigued traveller, set off to consult with Mr. S , the able 

and ingenious engineer of the Scottish Light-House Service, 
who chanced to be on the island. As his skill and knowledge 

were in the highest repute, it was conceived that Mr S 

could decide at once whether the stranger was a Peght, or 

ought to be treated as such. Mr S was so good-natured 

as to attend the summons, with the view of rendering the 
preacher some service. The poor missionary, who had watched 
for three nights, was now fast asleep, little dreaming what 
odious suspicions were current respecting him. The inhabi- 
tants were assembled round the door. Mr S , understand- 

ing the traveller’s condition, declined disturbing him, upon 
wUich the islanders produced a pair of very little uncouth- 
looking boots, with prodigiously thick soles, and appealed to 
him whether it was possible such articles of raiment could be- 
long to any one but a Peght Mr. S , finding the preju- 

dices of the natives so strong, was induced to enter the sleeping 
apartment of the traveller, and was surprised to recognise in 
the supposed Peght a person whom he had known in his 
worldly profession of an Edinburgh shopkeeper, before he had 
assumed his present vocation. Of course he was enabled to 
refute all suspicions of Peghtism. 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


32s 


Note II., p. 23. — Monsters of the Northern Seas. 

I have said, in the text, that the wondrous tales told by 
Pontoppidan, the Archbishop of Upsal, still find believers in 
the Northern Archipelago. It is in vain they are cancelled 
even in the later editions of Guthrie’s Grammar, of which in- 
structive work they used to form the chapter far most attrac- 
tive to juvenile readers. But the same causes which probably 
gave birth to the legends concerning mermaids, sea-snakes, 
krakens, and other marvellous inhabitants of the Northern 
Ocean, are still afloat in those climates where they took their 
rise. They had their origin probably from the eagerness of 
curiosity manifested by our elegant poetess, Mrs. Hemans : 

“What hidest thou in thy treasure -caves and cells. 

Thou ever-sounding and mysterious Sea ? ” 

The additional mystic gloom which rests on these northern 
billows for half the year, joined to the imperfect glance ob- 
tained of occasional objects, encourage the timid or the fanciful 
to give way to imagination, and frequently to shape out a dis- 
tinct story from some object half seen and imperfectly exam- 
ined. Thus, some years since, a large object was observed in 
the beautiful Bay of Scalloway in Zetland, so much in vulgar 
opinion resembling the kraken, that though it might be dis- 
tinguished for several days, if the exchange of darkness to twi- 
light can be termed so, yet the hardy boatmen shuddered to 
approach it, for fear of being drawn down by the suction sup- 
posed to attend its sinking. It was probably the hull of some 
vessel which had foundered at sea. 

The belief in mermaids, so fanciful and pleasing in itself, is 
ever and anon refreshed by a strange tale from the remote 
shores of some solitary islet. 

The author heard a mariner of some reputation in his class 
vouch for having seen the celebrated sea-serpent. It appeared, 
so far as could be guessed, to be about a hundred feet long, 
with the wild mane and fiery eyes which old writers ascribe to 
the monster; but it is not unlikely the spectator might, in 
the doubtful light, be deceived by the appearance of a good 
Norway log floating on the waves. I have only to add, that 
the remains of an animal, supposed to belong to this latter 
species, were driven on shore in the Zetland Isles, within the 


326 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


recollection of man. Part of the bones were sent to London, 
and pronounced by Sir Joseph Banks to be those of a basking 
shark ; yet it would seem that an animal so well known, ought 
to have been immediately distinguished by the northern 
fishermen. 


Note III., p. 104. — Sale of Winds. 

The King of Sweden, the same Eric quoted by Mordaunt, 
“ was,” says Olaus Magnus, “in his time held second to none 
in the magical art ; and he was so familiar with the evil spirits 
whom he worshipped, that what way soever he turned his cap, 
the wind would presently blow that way, For this he was 
called Windycap.” Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus 
Romce, 1555. It is well known that the Laplanders derive a 
profitable trade in selling windsj but it is perhaps less notori- 
ous, that within these few years such a commodity might be 
purchased on British ground, where it was likely to be in great 
request. At the village of Stromness, on the Orkney main is- 
land, called Pomona, lived, in 1814, an aged dame, called Bes- 
sie Millie, who helped out her subsistence by selling favourable 
winds to mariners. He was a venturous master of a vessel 
who left the roadstead of Stromness without paying his offering 
to propitiate Bessie Millie ; her fee was extremely moderate, 
being exactly sixpence, for which, as she explained herself, she 
boiled her kettle and gave the bark advantage of her prayers, 
for she disclaimed all unlawful arts. The wind thus petitioned 
for was sure, she said, to arrive, though occasionally the mari- 
ners had to wait some time for it. The woman’s dwelling and 
appearance were not unbecoming her pretensions ; her house, 
which was on the brow of the steep hill on which Stromness is 
founded, was only accessible by a series of dirty and precipi- 
tous lanes, and for exposure might have been the abode of 
Eolus himself, in whose commodities the inhabitant dealt. 
She herself was, as she told us, nearly one hundred years old, 
withered and'dried up like a mummy. A clay-coloured ker- 
chief, folded round her head, corresponded in colour to her 
corpse-like complexion. Two light-blue eyes that gleamed 
with a lustre like that of insanity, an utterance of astonishing 
rapidity, a nose and chin that almost met together, and a 
ghastly expression of cunning, gave her the effect of Hecate. 
She remembered Gow the pirate, who had been a native of 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


327 


these islands, in which he closed his career, as mentioned in 
the preface. Such was Bessie Millie, to whom the mariners 
paid a sort of tribute, with a feeling betwixt jest and earnest. 


Note IV., p. 113. — Reluctance to Save a Drowning Man. 

It is remarkable, that in an archipelago where so many per- 
sons must be necessarily endangered by the waves, so strange 
and inhuman a maxim should have ingrafted itself upon the 
minds of a people otherwise kind, moral, and hospitable. But 
all with whom I have spoken agree, that it was almost general 
ill the beginning of the eighteenth century, and was with difficulty 
weeded out by the sedulous instructions of the clergy, and the 
rigorous injunctions of the proprietors There is little doubt 
it had been originally introduced as an excuse for suffering 
those who attempted to escape from the wreck to perish unas- 
sisted, so that, there being no survivor, she might be consid- 
ered as lawful plunder, A story was told me, I hope an 
untrue one, that a vessel having got ashore among the breakers 
on one of the remote Zetland islands, five or six men, the 
whole or greater part of the unfortunate crew, endeavoured to 
land by assistance of a hawser, which they had secured to a 
rock ; the inhabitants were assembled, and looked on with 
some uncertainty, till an old man said, “ Sirs, if these men 
come ashore, the additional mouths will eat all the meal we 
have in store for winter ; and how are we to get more 'I ” A 
young fellow, moved with this argument, struck the rope 
asunder with his axe, and all the poor wretches were immersed 
among the breakers, and perished. 


Note V., p. 121. — Mair Wrecks ere Winter. 

The ancient Zetlander looked upon the sea as the provider 
of his living, not only by the plenty produced by the fishings, 
but by the spoil of wrecks. Some particular islands have 
fallen off very considerably in their rent, since the commis- 
sioners of the lighthouses have ordered lights on the Isle of 
Sanda and the Pentland Skerries. A gentleman, familiar with 
those seas, expressed surprise at seeing the farmer of one of the 
isles in a boat with a very old pair of sails. “ Had it been His 


328 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


will ” — said the man, with an affected deference to Providence, 
very inconsistent with the sentiment of his speech — “ Had it 
been His will that light had not been placed yonder, I would 
have had enough of new sails last winter.” 


Note VL, p. 172. — Zetland Corn-mills. 

There is certainly something very extraordinary to a 
stranger in Zetland corn-mills. They are of the smallest pos- 
sible size ; the wheel which drives them is horizontal, and the 
cogs are turned diagonally to the water. The beam itself 
stands upright, and is inserted in a stone quern of the old- 
fashioned construction, which it turns round, and thus performs 
its duty. Had Robinson Crusoe ever been in Zetland, he 
would have had no difficulty in contriving a machine for 
grinding corn in his desert island. These mills are thatched 
over in a little hovel, which has much the air of a pig-sty. 
There may be five hundred such mills on one island, not ca- 
pable any one of them of grinding above a sackful of corn 
at a time. 


Note YII., p. 234. — The Sword-Dance. 

The Sword-Dance is celebrated in general terms by Olaus 
Magnus. He seems to have considered it as peculiar to the 
Norwegians, from whom it may have passed to the Orkneymen 
and Zetlanders, with other northern customs. 


Of their Dancing in Arms. 

Moreover, the northern Goths and Swedes had another 
sport to exercise youth withall, that they will dance and skip 
amongst naked swords and dangerous weapons i And this they 
do after the manner of masters of defence, as they are taught 
from their youth by skilful teachers, that dance before them, 
and sing to it. And this play is showed especially about 
Shrovetide, called in Italian Macchararum. For, before car- 
nivals, all the youth dance for eight days together, holding 
their swords up, but within the scabbards, for three times turn- 
ing about ; and then they do it with their naked swords lifted 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


329 


up. After this, turning more moderately, taking the points 
and pummels one of the other, they change ranks, and place 
themselves in an triagonal figure, and this they call Rosam ; 
and presently they dissolve it by drawing back their swords 
and lifting them up, that upon every one’s head there may be 
made a square Rosa, and then by a most nimbly whisking 
their swords about collaterally, they quickly leap back, and 
end the sport, which they guide with pipes or songs, or both 
together ; first by a more heavy, then by a more vehement, 
and lastly, by a most vehement dancing. But this speculation 
is scarce to be understood but by those who look on, how 
comely and decent it is, when at one word, or one commanding, 
the whole armed multitude is directed to fall to fight, and 
clergymen may exercise themselves, and mingle themselves 
amongst others at this sport, because it is all guided by most 
wise reason.” 

To the Primate’s account of the sword-dance, I am able to 
add the words sung or chanted, on occasion of this dance, as 
it is still performed in Papa Stour, a remote island of Zetland, 
where alone the custom keeps its ground. It is, it will be ob- 
served by antiquaries, a species of play or mystery, in which the 
Seven Champions of Christendom make their appearance, as in 
the interlude presented in “ All’s Well that Ends Well.” This 
dramatic curiosity was most kindly procured for my use by Dr. 
Scott of Hazlar Hospital, son of my friend Mr. Scott of Mew- 
bie, Zetland. Mr. Hibbert has, in his Description of the Zet- 
land Islands, given an account of the sword-dance, but some- 
what less full than the following: 


“Words used as a prelude to the Sword-Dance, a Danish 
OR Norwegian Ballet, composed some centuries ago, 
AND preserved IN PaPA StOUR, ZETLAND. 

Persons Dramatis.^ 

(Enter Master, in the character of St. George. ) 

Brave gentles all within this hoor,* 

If ye delight in any sport. 

Come see me dance upon this floor, 

^ So placed in the old MS. 

2 Boor — so spelt, to accord with the vulgar pronunciation of the 
word bower. 


330 


AtfTHOR’S NOTES. 


Which to you all shall yield comfort. 

Then shall I dance in such a sort, 

As possible I may or can ; 

You, minstrel man, play me a Porte, ^ 

That I on this floor may prove a man. 

hows, and dances in a line.) 

Now have I danced with heart and hand, 

Brave gentles all, as you may see. 

For I have been tried in many a land. 

As yet the truth can testify ; 

In England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, and Spain, 
Have I been tried with that good sword of rteel. 

(Draws, and flourishes.) 

Yet, I deny that ever a man did make :ae yield ; 

For i'l my body there is strength. 

As by my manhood may be seen ; 

And I, with that good sword of length. 

Have oftentimes i i perils been. 

And over champions I was king. 

And by the strength of this right hand. 

Once on a day I kill’d fifteen, 

And left them dead upon the land. 

Therefore, brave minstrel, do not care. 

But play to me a Porte most light. 

That I no longer do forbear, 

But dance in all these gentles* sight ; 

Although my strength makes you abased. 

Brave gentles all, be not afraid. 

For here are six champions, with me, staid. 

All by my manhood I have raised. 

(He dances.) 

Since I have danced, I think it best 
To call my brethren in your sight. 

That I may have a little rest, 

And they may dance with all their might ; 

With heart and hand as they are knights. 

And shake their swords of steel so bright. 

And show their main strength on this floor. 

For we shall have another bout 
Before we pass out of this boor. 


1 Porte — so spelt in the original. The word is known as indica- 
ting a piece of music on the bagpipe, to which ancient instrunjent, 
which is of Scandinavian origin, the sword-dance may have been 
originally composed. 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


331 


Therefore, brave minstrel, do not care 
To play to me a Porte most light, 

That 1 no longer do forbear, 

But dailce in all these gentles’ sight. 

(He dances, and then introduces his knights, as under . ) 
Stout James of Spain, both tried and stour,i 
Thine acts are known full well indeed ; 

And champion Dennis, a French knight, 

Who stout and bold is to be seen ; 

And David, a Welshman born. 

Who is come of noble blood ; 

And Patrick also, who blew the horn. 

An Irish knight, amongst the wood. 

Of Italy, brave Anthony the good. 

And Andrew of Scotland King ; 

St, George of England, brave indeed. 

Who to the Jews wrought inuckle tinte.® 

Away with this ! — Let us come to sport, 

Since that ye have a mind to war. 

Since that 'ye have this bargain sought, 

Come let us fight and do not fear. 

Therefore, brave minstrel, do not care 
To play to me a Porte most light, 

That I no longer do forbear. 

But dance in all these gentles’ sight. 

(He dances, and advances to James of Spain. 

Stout James of Spain, both tried and stour. 

Thine acts are known full well indeed. 

Present thyself within our sight, 

Without either fear or dread. 

Count not for favour or for feid. 

Since of thy acts thou hast been sure ; 

Brave James of Spain, I will thee lead. 

To prove thy manhood on this floor. 

(James dances.) 

Brave champion Dermis, a French knight, 

Who stout and bold is to be 'seen. 

Present thyself here in our sight. 

Thou brave French knight. 

Who bold hast been ; 

Since thou such valiant acts hast done, 

Come let us see some of them now 


1 Stour, great. 

* Muckle tinte, much loss or harm ; so in MS. 


332 . 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


With courtesy, thou brave French knight, 

Draw out thy sword of noble hue. 

( Dennis dances, while the others retire to a side. ) 
Brave David a bow must string, and with awe 
Set up a wand upon a stand. 

And that brave David will cleave in twa.^ 

( David dances solus. ) 

Here is, I think, an Irish knight. 

Who does not fear, or does not fright, 

To prove thyself a valiant man. 

As thou hast done full often bright ; 

Brave Patrick, dance, if that thou can. 

( Ee dunces. ) 

Thou stout Italian, come thou here ; 

Thy name is Anthony, most stout ; 

Draw out thy sword that is most clear. 

And do thou fight without any doubt ; 

Thy leg thou shake, thy neck thou lout,^ 

And show some courtesy on this floor. 

For we shall have another bout. 

Before we pass out of this boor. 

Thou kindly Scotsman, come thou here ; 

Thy name is Andrew of Fair Scotland ; 

Draw out thy sword that is most clear. 

Fight for thy king with thy right hand ; 

And aye as long as thou canst stand, 

Fight for thy king with all thy heart ; 

And then, for to confirm his band. 

Make all his enemies for to smart. — (Ee dances.') 
(Music begins.) 


F1QUIR.S 

“ The six stand in rank with their swords reclining on their 
shoulders. The Master (St. G-eorge) dances, and then strikes 
the sword of .James of Spain, wlio follows George, then dances, 
strikes the sword of Dennis, who follows behind James. In 
like manner the rest — the music playing — swords as before. 

1 Something is evidently amiss or omitted here. David probably 
exhibited some feat of archery. 

2 Lout — to bend or bow down, pronounced looty as doubt is doot in 
Scotland. 

* Figuir — so spelt in MS. 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


333 


After the six are brought out of rank, they and the master form 
a circle, and hold the swords point and hilt. This circle is 
danced round twice. The whole, headed by the master, pass 
under the swords held in a vaulted manner. They jump over 
the swords. This naturally places the swords across, which 
they disentangle by passing under their right sword. They 
take up the seven swords, and form a circle, in which they 
dance round. 

“ The master runs under the sword opposite, which he jumps 
over backwards. The others do the same. He then passes 
under the right-hand sword, which the others follow, in which 
position they dance, until commanded by the master, when 
they form into a circle, and dance round as before. They then 
jump over the right-hand sword, by which means their backs 
are to the circle, and their hancjs across their backs. They 
dance round in that form until the master calls ‘ Loose,’ when 
they pass under the right sword, and are in a perfect circle. 

“ The master lays down his sword, and lays hold of the point 
of James’s sword. He then turns himself, James, and the 
others, into a clew. When so formed, he passes under out of 
the midst of the circle ; the others follow ; they vault as before. 
After several other evolutions, they throw themselves into a 
circle, with their arms across the breast. They afterwards form 
such figures as to form a shield of their swords, and the shield 
is so compact that the master and his knights dance alternately 
with this shield upon their heads. It is then laid down upon 
the floor. Each knight lays hold of their former points and 
hilts with their hands across, which disentangle by figuirs 
directly contrary to those that formed the shield. This finishes 
the Ballet. 


Epilogue. 

Mars does rule, he bends his brows, 

He makes us all agast ; ^ * 

After the few hours that we stay here, 

Venus will rule at last. 

Farewell, farewell, brave gentles all, 

That herein do remain, 

I wish you health and happiness 

Till we return again. {Exeunt** 


* Agast — so spelt in MS. 


334 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


The manuscript from which the above was copied was tran- 
scribed from a very old one, by Mr. William Henderson, Jun., 
of Papa Stour, in Zetland. Mr. Henderson’s copy is not dated, 
but bears his own signature, and, from various circumstances, 
it is known to have been written about the year 1788. 


Note Vni., p. 299 — The Dwarfie Stone. 

This is one of the wonders of the Orkney Islands, though it 
has been rather undervalued by their late historian, Mr. Barry. 
The island of Hoy rises abruptly, starting as it were out of the 
sea, which is contrary to the gentle and flat character of the 
other Isles of Orkney It consists of a mountain, having dif- 
ferent eminences or peaks. It is very steep, furrowed with 
ravines, and placed so as to catch the mists of the Western 
Ocean, and has a noble and picturesque effect from all points 
of view. The highest peak is divided from another eminence, 
called the Ward-hill, by a long swampy valley full of peat-bogs. 
Upon the slope of this last hill, and just where the principal 
mountain of Hoy opens in a hollow swamp, or corrie, lies what 
is called the Dwarfie Stone. It is a great fragment of sandstone, 
composing one solid mass, which has long since been detached 
from a belt of the same materials, cresting the eminence above 
the spot where it now lies, and which has slid down till it 
reached its present situation. The rock is about seven feet 
high, twenty-two feet long, and seventeen feet broad. The 
upper end of it is hollowed by iron tools, of which the marks 
are evident, into a sort of apartment, containing two beds of 
stone, with a passage between them. The uppermost and larg- 
est bed is five feet eight inches long, by two feet broad, which 
was supposed to be used by the dwarf himself ; the lower couch 
is shorter, and rounded off, instead of being squared at the cor- 
ners. There is an entrance of about three feet and a half square, 
and a stone lies before it calculated to fit the opening. A sort 
of skylight window gives light to the apartment. We can only 
gue.ss at the purpose of this monument, and different ideas 
have been suggested. Some have supposed it the work of some 
travelling mason ; but the cui hono would remain to be accounted 
for. The Rev. Mr. Barry conjectures it to be a hermit’s cell ; 
but it displays no symbol of Christianity, and the door opens 
to the westward. The Orcadian traditions allege the work to 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


335 


be that of a dwarf, to whom they ascribe supernatural powers, 
and a malevolent disposition, the attributes of that race in 
Norse mythology. Whoever inhabited this singular den cer- 
tainly enjoyed 

“ Pillow cold, and sheets not warm." 

1 observed, that commencing just opposite to the Dwarfie Stone, 
and extending in a line to the sea-beach, there are a number of 
small barrows, or cairns, which seem to connect the stone with 
a very large cairn where we landed. This curious monument 
may therefore have been intended as a temple of some kind to 
the Northern Dii Manes, to which the cairns might direct 
worshippers. 


Note IX., p. 299. — Carbuncle on the Ward-hill. 

“ At the west end of this stone, (i. e. the Dwarfie Stone,) 
stands an exceeding high mountain of a steep ascent, called the 
Ward-hill of Hoy, near the top of which, in the months of 
May, June, and July, about midnight, is seen something that 
shines and sparkles admirably, and which is often seen a great 
way off. It hath shined more brightly before than it does now, 
and though many have climbed up the hill, and attempted to 
search for it, yet they could find nothing. The vulgar talk of 
it as some enchanted carbuncle, but I take it rather to be some 
water sliding down the face of a smooth rock, which, when the 
sun, at such a time, shines upon, the reflection causeth that 
admirable splendour.” — Dr. Wallace’s Descri'ption of the 
Islands of Orkney^ 12mo, 1700, p. 52. 



:: " /j 


/> <iijt 

-H V II//? fg./VA 

>' *• i 11/ .f'liiit. 

. ll.'/ffll 1>M '--'•jy/ 



EDITOR’S NOTES. 


{a) p. xxix. “There came a ghost to Margaret’s door.” 
In some versions of “Clerk Saunders” the lady’s troth is 
“ streeked ” on a rod of glass, and so she and the ghost are freed 
from their plighted love. 

(6) p. 15. “ Scat, wattle, hawkhen, hagalef.” Different 

kinds of duties exacted in Zetland. 

(c) p. 18. “ Berserkars.” Apparently there was a time 

when these formidable persons were merely champion war- 
riors, a kind of professional soldiery. In the “ Raven Song,” 
an old Norse lay, the Valkyrie asks the Raven about Harold 
Fair Hair’s Bearsarks. “ Wolfcoats they call them, that bear 
bloody targets in battle, that redden their spear heads when 
they come into fight, when they are at work together. The 
wise king, I trow, will only reward men of high renown among 
them that smite on the shield.” Later, perhaps, tlie Bear- 
sarks won their evil reputation, as ravening maniacs of battle, 
given to biting their shields and behaving in an hysterical 
manner. In such sagas as that of Grettir they are violent 
bullies, sometimes selling their services. (See Powell and 
Vigfussen’s “ Corpus Boreale,” i. 257.) 

(d) p. 27. Motto. The second verse is not part of the 
original ballad, which was altered by Allan Kamsay. 

(e) *p. 39. “ Bolts and bars in Scotland.” There are still 

places so innocent — in Galloway, at least — that doors and 
windows may be, and are, left open all night. 

(/) p. 45. “ Deilbelicket.” This is the name of an old 

Scotch dish, of which goose and gooseberries are component 
parts. The recipe occurs in Galt’s “ Ayrshire Legatees.” 

ig) p. 46. “ James Guthrie.” An account of this martyr 

of the Covenant will be found in the Editor’s Notes to “ Old 
Mortality.” 

{h) 151. “ Lucas Jacobson Debes.” “ Foeroae et Foeroa 

Reserata. A description of the Isles and inhabitants of Fae- 
roe, Englished by John Sterpin,” 12mo, London 1676, Abbots- 
ford Library, 
von. 1 . — 22 


338 


EDITOR’S NOTES. 


(^) p. 173. “Multures — lock, gowpen, and kiiaveship.” 
Feudal and other dues on corn ground at the laird’s mill. 

(k) p. 231. “ The wilds of Strathnavern.” Montrose met 

his final defeat at Strathoykel, at a steep rounded hill, still 
called the Rock of Lament. His men were driven into the 
Kyle, which there is deep and wide. Montrose fled up the 
Oykel, into Assynt. The Naver flows due north, the Oykel 
from west to east. 

(l) p. 234. . Sword Dance. Scott can hardly have escaped 
being familiar with the degradation of this dance as played at 
Christmas by the Guizards. They are lads who go round 
acting and dancing in kitchens. Their songs may be found in 
Chambers’s “ Popular Rhymes of Scotland.” Guizards per- 
formed at the Folk-Lore Congress in London 1891. 

(m) p. 257. “ The battue in Ettrick Forest, for the de- 

struction of the foxes.” This ceased when the Duke of Buc- 
cleugh hunted the district, but foxes are still shot in the 
inaccessible heights of Meggat Water. 

(n) p. 261. Sharing the whale. An account of a battle 
for a stranded whale may be read in the Saga of Grettir, trans- 
lated by Mr. Morris and Mr. Magnussen. 

(o) p. 279. For Ne^eXTy-yfpeVa Zcvs read Nec^eXj^yepera Zevs. 

(p) p. 299. “ That wonderful carbuncle.” This must be 

the origin of Hawthorne’s tale “The Great Carbuncle.”, 

Andrew Lang. 


AugxLst 1893. 


GLOSSARY, 


A’, alL 

Ae, one. 

Afif, off. 

Afore, before. 

Aigre, sour. 

Aik, the oak. 

Ain, own. 

Air, an open sea-beach. 

Aim, iron. 

A-low, ablaze. 

Amang, among. 

An, if. 

Ance, once. 

Ane, one. 

Anent, regarding. 

Aneugh, eneugh, enow, 
enougn. 

Angus, Forfarshire. 

Aroint, avaunt. 

Aught, to possess or belong to. 
Auld, old. 

Auld-world, ancient, old-fash- 
ioned. 

Aver, a cart-horse. 

Awa, away. 

Awmous, alms. 

Awn, a beard (of grain). 
Awsome, fearful. 

Back-spauld, the back of the 
shoulder. 

Bailie, a magistrate. 

Bairn, a child. 

Baith, both. 

Banning, cursing. 

Bauld, bold. 

Bear, a kind of barley. 
Bear-braird, barley-sprouting. 
Bee-skep, a bee hive. 
Bell-the-cat, to contend with. 
Bern, a child. 


Bicker, a wooden dish. 

Bide, to stay. 

Big, to build. 

Biggin, a building. 

Biggit, built. 

Billie, brother, 

Bittle, a wooden bat for the 
beating of linen. 

Bland, a drink made from but- 
ter-milk. 

Bleeze, blaze. 

Blithe, glad. 

Blurt, to burst out speaking. 
Bonally, a ]>arting drink. 
Bonnie, pretty. 

Bonnie-die, a toy, a trinket. 
Bonnie-wallies, good things, 
gewgaws. 

Bourasque, a sudden squall. 
Braid, broad. 

Braws, fine clothes. 

Breekless, trouserless. 
Burn-brae, the acclivity at the 
bottom of which a rivulet runs. 

Gallant, a lad. 

Ganna, cannot. 

Ganny, prudent. 

Ganty, lively and cheerful. 
Garles, farm servants. 

Garline, a witch. 

Gart-avers, cart-horses. 

Gateran, a Highland robber. 
Gauld, cold. 

Gaup, a cup. 

“ Gauseyed syver,** a cause- 
wayed sewer. 

Gertie — “my certie!” my faith ! 
Ghange-house, an inn. 
Ghapman, a small merchant or 
pedlar. 


340 


GLOSSAKY. 


Chield, a fellow. 

Claith, cloth. 

Clatter, to tattle. 

Claver, to chatter. 

Clavers, idle talk. 

Clog, a small short log, a billet 
of Avood. 

Coal-heugh, a coal-pit. 

Coble, a small boat. 

Cog, a wooden bowl. 

Cogfu’, the full of a wooden bowl. 
Coorse, coarse. 

Coup, to exchange. 

Crack, to boast. 

Creel, a basket. “ In a creel,’* 
foolish.- 

Croft-land, land of superior qual- 
ity, which was still cropped. 
Crowdie, meal and Avater stirred 
up together. 

Cummer, a gossip. 

Curch, a kerchief for covering 
the head. 

Cusser, a stallion. 

Daffing, larking. 

Daft, crazy. 

Daikering, sauntering. 
Dead-thraw, the death-throes. 
Deftly, handsomely. 

Deil, the devil. 

Ding, to knock. 

Dinna, do not. 

Dirk, a dagger. 

Doited, stupid. 

Doun, down. 

Dour, sullen, hard, stubborn. 
Dowlas, a strong linen cloth, 
Drammock, raw meal and water. 
Drouth, thirst. 

Duds, clothes. 

Een, eyes. 

Embay e, to enclose. 
Equals-aquals, in the way of 
division strictly equal 

Fa’, fall. 

Factor, a land steAvard. 

“ Farcie on his face ! ” a male- 
diction. 

Fash, fashery, trouble. 


Ferlies, unusual events or things. 

“ Ferlies make fools fain,” 
Avonders m.ake fools eager. 

Fey, fated, or predestined to 
speedy death. 

Fifish, crazy, eccentric. 

Fir-clog, a small log of fir. 

Flang, fluug. 

Fhchter, to flutter or tremble. 

“ Flinching a whale,” slicing 
the blubber from the bones. 

” Floatsome and jetsome,” ar- 
ticles floated or cast aAvay on 
the sea. 

‘‘ Fool carle,” a clOAvn, a stupid 
fellow. 

Forby, besides. 

Forpit, a measure = the fourth 
part of a peck. 

Fowd, the chief judge or magis- 
trate. 

Frae, from. 

Freit, a charm or superstition. 

Fule, a fool. 

Gaberlunzie, a tinker or beggar. 

Gaed, went. 

Gait, gate, way, direction. 

Gane, gone. 

Gang, go. 

Ganging, going. 

Gangrel, vagrant. 

Gar, to oblige, to force. 

Gascromh, an instrument for 
trenching ground, shaped like 
a currier’s knife with a crooked 
handle. 

” Gay mony,” a good many. 

Gear, property. 

Gie, give. 

Gills, the jaws. 

Gin, if. 

Gio, a deep ravine which admits 
the sea. 

Girdle, an iron plate on which 
to fire cakes. 

Glamour, a fascination or charm. 

Glebe, land belonging to the 
parish minister in right of his 
office. 

Glower, to gaze. 

Gowd, gold. 


GLOSSARY. 


341 


Gowk, a fool. 

Gowpen, the full of both hands. 

Graip, a three-pronged pitch- 
fork. 

Graith, furniture. 

, Grew, to shiv^er. The flesh is 
said to grew when a chilly sen- 
sation passes over the surface 
of the body. 

Grist, a mill fee payable in kind. 

Gude, good. 

Gudeman, gudewife, the heads 
of the house. 

Gue, a two-stringed violin. 

Guide, to treat, to take care of. 

Guizards, maskers or mummers. 

Gyre-car line, a hag. 

Haaf, deep-sea fishing. 

Haaf-fish, a large kind of seal. 

Hae, have. 

Haft, to fix, to settle. 

Hagalef, payment for liberty to 
cast peats. 

Haill, whole. 

Hald, hold. 

Halier, a cave in into which the 
tide flows. 

Hallanshaker, a vagabond, a 
beggar. 

Halse, the throat. 

Hand-quern, a hand-mill. 

Happer, the hopper of a mill. 

Harry, to plunder. 

Har’st, harvest. 

Hasp, a hank of yarn. “ Rav- 
elled hasp,” everything in 
confusion. 

Hand, hauld, hold. 

Havings, behaviour. 

Hawkhen, hens exacted by the 
royal falconer on his visits to 
the islands. 

Helyer, a cavern into which the 
tide flows. 

Hialtland, the old name for 
Shetland. 

Hinny, a term of endearment = 
honey. 

Hirple, to halt, to limp. 

Hirsel, to move or slide down. 

Housewife-skep, housewifery. 


Hout ! tut ! 

Howf, a haunt, a haven. 

Hk, of the same name. 

Ilk, ilka, each, every. 

ni-fa’red, ill-favoured. 

“ In a creel,” foolish. 

Infield, land continually cropped. 

In-town, land adjacent to the 
farmhouse. 

Isna, is not. 

J agger, a pedlar. 

Jaud, a jade. 

J ougs, the pillory. 

Kail-pot, a large pot for boiling 
broth. 

Kain — “to pay the kain,” to 
suffer severely. 

Ken, to know. 

“ Ken’d folks,” “ken’dfreend,” 
well-known people, a well- 
known friend. 

Kiempe, a Norse champion. 

Kist, a chest. 

Kittle, difiicult, ticklish. 

Kittywake, a kind of sea-gull. 

“ Knapped Latin,” spoke Latin. 

Knave, a miller’s boy. 

Knaveship, a small due of meal 
paid to the miller. 

Kraken, a fabulous sea-monster. 

Kyloes, small black cattle. 

Lad-bairn, a male child. 

Lair, learning. 

Lang, long. 

Langspiel, an obsolete musical 
instrument. 

Lave, the rest. 

Lawright-man, an officer whose 
chief duty was the regulation 
of weights and measures. 

Lawting, a court of law. 

Limmer, a woman of loose char- 
acter. 

Lispund, the fifteenth part of a 
barrel, aweight used in Orkney 
and Shetland. 

List, to wish, to choose. 

Loan, a lane, an enclosed road. 


342 


GLOSSAKY. 


Locic, a handful. 

Loo’ed, loved. 

Jjoom, a vessel. 

Loon, a lad, a fellow. 

Lowe, a dame. 

Lug, the ear. 

Lum, a chimney. 

Mair, more. 

“ Mair by token,” moreover, 
especially. 

Maist, most. 

Markal, the head of the plough. 
Maun, must. 

Mearns, Kincardineshire. 
Meltith, food, a meal. 

Mense,* manners. 

“ Merk of land,” originally 
equal to 1600 square fathoms. 
“ Miching malicho,” lurking 
mischief. 

Mickle, much. 

Mill-eye, the eye or opening in 
the hupes or cases of a mill at 
which the meal is let out. 
Mind, to remember. 

Mony, many. 

“ Morn, the,” to-morrow. 

“ Mould board,” the wooden 
board of the plough which 
turns over the ground. 
Muckle, much, big. 

Multures, dues paid for grinding 
corn. 

“ My certie I ” my faith ! 

Na, nae, no, not. 

Nacket, a portable refreshment 
or luncheon. 

Naig, a nag. 

Nane, none. 

Napery, household linen. 
Natheless, nevertheless. 

Neist, next. 

Nievefu’, a handful. 

Noup, a headland precipitous to 
the sea and sloping inland. 
Nowt, black cattle. 

Ony, any. 

Or, before. 

O’t, of it. 


Out-taken, except. 

Out-town, laud at a distance 
from tlie farmhouse. 

Ower, over. 

Owerlay, a cravat. 

Owsen, oxen. 

Parritch, porridge. 

Partan, a crab. 

Pawky, wily, slyly. 

Peat-moss, the place whence 
peats are dug. 

Peltrie, trash. 

Pit, put. 

“Plantie cruive,” a kail-yard. 
Pleugh, a plough. 

Pouch, a pocket. 

Puir, poor. 

Pund Scots = Is. 8c?. sterling. 

Quaigh, a small wooden cup. 
Quean, a disrespectful term for 
a woman. 

Quern, a hand-mill. 

Raddman, a councillor. 

Randy, riotous, disorderly. 
Ranzelman, a constable. 
Redding-kaim, a wide-toothed 
comb for the hair. 

Reek, smoke. 

Reimkennar, one who knows 
mystic rhyme. 

Reset, a place of shelter. 
Rigging, a ridge, a roof. 

Ritt, a scratch or incision. 

Riva, a cleft in a rock. 

Rock, a distaff. 

Rokelay, a short cloak. 

“ Roose the ford,” judge of the 
ford. 

Roost, a strong and boisterous 
current. 

Rotton, a rat. 

Sackless, innocent. 

Sae, so. 

Sain, to bless. 

Sair, sore. 

Sail, shall. 

Sandie-lavrock, a sand-lark. 
Sang, a song. 


GLOSSARY. 


343 


Saul, the soul. 

Saunt, a saint. 

Saut, salt. 

Sax, six. 

Scald, a bard or minstrel. 

Scart, a cormorant. 

Scart, to scratch. 

Scat, a land-tax paid to the 
Crown. 

Scathold, a common. 

Scaur, a cliff. 

“ Sclate stane,” slate stone. 
Scowrie, shabby, mean. 
Scowries, young sea-gulls, 
Sealgh, sealchie, a seal. 

Setting, fitting, becoming. 

“ Sharney peat,” fuel made of 
cow’s dung. 

Sheltie, a Shetland pony. 
Shouldna, should not, 
Shouthers, the shoulders. 

Sic, siccan, such. 

Siccar, sure. 

Siever, a .sewer. 

Siller, money. 

Sillocks, the fry of the coal-fish. 
Skeoe, a stone hut for drying 
fish. 

Skerry, a flat insulated rock. 
Skirl, to scream, 

Skudler, the leader of a band of 
mummers. 

Slap, a gap or pass. 

Slocken, to quench. 

Sneck, the latch of the door. 
Sock, a ploughshare. 

Sole-clout, a thick plate of cast 
metal attached to that part of 
the plough which runs on the 
ground, for saving the wooden 
heel from being worn. 

Somer, a sturdy beggar, an ob- 
trusive guest. 

Soming, masterful begging. 
Sort, a small number. 

Sough, a sigh ; to emit a rushing 
, or whistling sound 
Spreacherie, movables. 

Spunk, a match. 

Stack, an insulated precipitous 
rock. 

Stilts of plough,” handles. 


Stithy, an anvil. 

Stot, a bullock. 

Streek, to stretch. 

Striddle, to straddle. 

Sucken, mill dues. 

Suld, should. 

Sumph, a lubberly fellow. 

Sune, soon. 

Swalled, swollen. 

Swap, to exchange. 

Syne, since, ago. 

Syver, a sewer. 

Tacksman, a tenant of the higher 
class, 

Taen, taken. 

Tane, the one. 

Tangs, tongs. 

Thae, these, those. 

Theekit, thatched. 

Thegither, together. 

Thigger, a beggar. 

Thigging, begging. 

Thirl, the obligation on a tenant 
to have his iiour ground at a 
certain mill. 

Thirled, bound to. 

Thole, to endure. 

Thrawart, forward, perverse. 
Tither, the other. 

Tittie, a little sister. 

Tocher, dowry, estate. 

Toom, empty. 

Tows, ropes. 

Toy, a linen or woollen headdress 
hanging down over the shoul- 
ders. 

“ Tree and tow,” the gallows. 
Trindle, to trundle. 

Trock, to barter. 

Trow, to believe, to think, to 
guess. 

Trow or Drow, a spirit or elf 
believed in by the Norse. 

Twa, two. 

Twal, twelve. 

Twiscar, tuskar, a spade for cut- 
ting peats. 

Odaller, a freehold proprietor. 
Ultima Thule, farthest Thule. 
Ul2de, oil. 


344 


GLOSSARY. 


Umquhile, the late. 

Uncanny, dangerous ; supposed 
to possess supernatural powers. 

Unce, ounce. 

Unco, very, strange, great, par- 
ticularly. 

Ure, the eighth part of a merk 
of land. 

Usquebaugh, whisky. 

Vivers, victuals. 

Voe, an inlet of the sea. 

Wad, would. 

Wadmaal, homespun woollen 
cloth. 

Wakerife, watchful, wakeful. 

Wan, won, got. 

Warlock, a wizard. 

Watna, know not. 

Wattle, an assessment for the 
salary of the magistrate. 

Waur, worse. 

Wee, small, little. 

Weel, well. 


1 Well, a whirlpooL 
I Wha, who. 

I Whan, when. 

I “ What for,” why. 

Wheen, a few. 

Whigamore, a term of the same 
meaning with Whig^ applied 
to Presbyterians, but more 
contemptuous. 

Whiles, sometimes. 

Whilk, which. 

Whingers, hangers, knives. 
Whittie-whattieing, shuffling oi 
wheedling. 

Whittle, a knife. 

Wi’, with. 

Wick, an open bay. 

I Win, to get. 

Withy, a rope of twisted wands. 
Wot, to know. 

Wowf, crazy. 

Yam-Avindle, a yarn-winder. 
Yestreen, yesterday. 

I Yett, a gate. 


IND OF VOL. L 


THE PIRATE. 


Nothing in him 

But doth suffer a sea- change. 

Tempest, 


9 


f '■ 






V. 

t 

•'V '-•': 

^fi'i *1 i/j 


» I ” 


. ii-i .>? 


4 I 


i> 


. i 






r 

Y. . 


r\ i / W }'/ 




. 4 ' .< 1 - 


^'••^*iwi |.,£| 


» r . 


.'•A A 


..- * 


V*-:!: fur 


J’ 4, ' 




'•J 


THE PIRATE 


CHAPTER 1. 

But lost to me, for ever lost those joys, 

Which reason scatters, and which time destroys. 

No more the midnight fairy-train I view, 

All in the merry moonlight tippling dew. 

Even the last lingering fiction of the brain, 

The churchyard ghost, is now at rest again. 

The Library. 

The moral bard, from whom we borrow the motto 
*of this chapter, has touched a theme with which 
most readers have some feelings that vibrate un- 
consciously. Superstition, when not arrayed in her 
full horrors, but laying a gentle hand only on her 
suppliant’s head, had charms which we fail not to 
regret, even in those stages of society from which 
her influence is wellnigh banished by the light of 
reason and general education. At least, in more 
ignorant periods, her system of ideal terrors had 
something in them interesting to minds which had 
few means of excitement. This is more especially 
true of those lighter modifications of superstitious 
feelings and practices which mingle in the amuse- 
ments of the ruder ages, and are, like the auguries 
of Hallow-e’en in Scotland, considered partly as 
matter of merriment, partly as sad and prophetic 
earnest. And, with similar feelings, people even of 
vot. u. — 1 


2 


THE PIRATE, 


tolerable education have, in our times, sought the 
cell of a fortune-teller, upon a frolic, as it is termed, 
and yet not always in a disposition absolutely seep 
tical towards the responses they receive. 

When the sisters of Burgh- Westra arrived in the 
apartment destined for a breakfast, as ample as that 
which we have described on the preceding morning, 
and had undergone a jocular rebuke from the Udal- 
ler for their late attendance, they found the company, 
most of whom had already breakfasted, engaged in an 
ancient Norwegian custom, of the character which 
we have just described. 

It seems to have been borrowed from those poems 
of the Scalds, in which champions and heroines are 
so often represented as seeking to know their des- 
tiny from some* sorceress or prophetess, who, as in 
the legend called by Gray the Descent of Odin, 
awakens by the force of Runic rhyme the unwilling 
revealer of the doom of fate, and compels from her * 
answers, often of dubious import, but which were 
then believed to express some shadow of the events 
of futurity. 

An old sibyl, Euphane Eea, the housekeeper we 
have already mentioned, was installed in the recess 
of a large window, studiously darkened by bear- 
skins and other miscellaneous drapery, so as to give 
it something the appearance of a Laplander’s hut, 
and accommodated, like a confessional chair, with 
an aperture, which permitted the person within to 
hear with ease whatever questions should be put, 
though not to see the querist. Here seated, the 
voluspa, or sibyl, was to listen to the rhythmical 
enquiries which should be made to her, and re- 
turn an extemporaneous answer. The drapery was 
supposed to prevent her from seeing by what indn 


THE PIRATE. 


3 


viduals she was consulted, and the intended or acci- 
dental reference which the answer given under such 
circumstances bore to the situation of the person by 
whom the question was asked, often furnished food 
for laughter, and sometimes, as it happened, for mpre 
serious reflection. The sibyl was usually chosen 
from her possessing the talent of improvisation 
in the Norse poetry; no unusual accomplishment, 
where the minds of many were stored with old 
verses, and where the rules of metrical composition 
are uncommonly simple. The questions were also 
put in verse ; but as this power of extemporaneous 
composition, though common, could not be supposed 
universal, the medium of an interpreter might be 
used by any querist, which interpreter, holding the 
consulter of the oracle by the hand, and standing 
by the place from which the oracles were issued, 
had the task of rendering into verse the subject of 
enquiry. 

On the present occasion, Claud Halcro was sum- 
moned, by the universal voice, to perform the part 
of interpreter ; and, after shaking his head, and 
muttering some apology for decay of memory and 
poetical powers, contradicted at once by his own 
conscious smile of confidence and by the general 
shout of the company, the lighthearted old man 
came forward to play his part in the proposed 
entertainment. 

But just as it was about to commence, the arrange- 
ment of parts was singularly altered. Norna of the 
Fitful-head, whom every one excepting the two sis- 
ters believed to be at the distance of many miles, sud- 
denly, and without greeting, entered the apartment, 
walked majestically up to the bearskin tabernacle, 
and signed to the female who was there seated to 


4 


THE PIRATE. 


abdicate her sanctuary. The old woman came forth, 
shaking her head, and looking like one overwhelmed 
with fear ; nor, indeed, were there many in the com- 
pany who saw with absolute composure the sudden 
appearance of a person, so well known and so 
generally dreaded as Norn a. 

She paused a moment at the entrance of the tent; 
and, as she raised the skin which formed the en- 
trance, she looked up to the north, as if imploring 
from that quarter a strain of inspiration ; then sign- 
ing to the surprised guests that they might approach 
in succession the shrine in which she was about to in- 
stall herself, she entered the tent, and was shrouded 
from their sight. 

But this was a different sport from what the com- 
pany had meditated, and to most of them seemed to 
present so much more of earnest than of game, that 
there was no alacrity shown to consult the oracle. 
The character and pretensions of Norna seemed, to 
almost all present, too serious for the part which she 
had assumed ; the men whispered to each other, and 
the women, according to Claud Halcro, realized the 
description of glorious John Dry den, — 

“ With horror shuddering, in a heap they ran.” 

The pause was interrupted by the loud manly 
voice of the Udaller. “ Why does the game stand 
still, my masters ? Are you afraid because my kins- 
woman is to play our voluspa ? It is kindly done in 
her, to do for us what none in the isles can do so 
well; and we will not baulk our sport for it, but 
rather go on the merrier.” 

There was still a pause in the company, and Mag- 
nus Troil added, “ It shall never be said that my 
kinswoman sat in her bower unhalsed, as if she were 


THE PIRATE. 


S 


some of the old mountain-giantesses, and all from 
faint heart. I will speak first myself ; but the rhyme 
comes worse from my tongue than when I was a 
score of years younger. — Claud Halcro, you must 
stand by me.” 

Hand in hand they approached the shrine of the 
supposed sibyl, and after a moment’s consultation 
together, Halcro thus expressed the query of his 
friend and patron. Now, the Udaller, like many 
persons of consequence in Zetland, who, as Sir Rob- 
ert Sibbald has testified for them, had begun thus 
early to apply both to commerce and navigation, was 
concerned to some extent in the whale-fishery of the 
season, and the bard had been directed to put into 
his halting verse an enquiry concerning its success. 

Claud Halcro. 

“ Mother darksome, Mother dread — 

Dweller on the Fitful-head, 

Thou canst see what deeds are done 
Under the never-setting sun. 

Look through sleet, and look through frost, 

Look to Greenland’s caves and coast, — 

By the iceberg is a sail 
Chasing of the swarthy whale ; 

Mother doubtful, Mother dread, 

Tell us, has the good ship sped ?” 

The jest seemed to turn to earnest, as all, bending 
their heads around, listened to the voice of Norna, 
who, without a moment’s hesitation, answered from 
the recesses of the tent in which she was enclosed : — ■ 

Norna. 

“ The thought of the aged is ever on gear, — 

On his fishing, his furrow, his flock, and his steer ; 

But thrive may his fishing, flock, furrow, and herd, 

While the aged for anguish shall tear his grey beard.** 


6 


THE PIRATE. 


There was a momentary pause, during which Trip' 
tolemus had time to whisper, “ If ten witches and as 
many warlocks were to swear it, I will never be- 
lieve that a decent man will either fash his beard or 
himself about any thing, so long as stock and crop 
goes as it should do.” 

But the voice from within the tent resumed its 
low monotonous tone of recitation, and, interrupting 
farther commentary, proceeded as follows : — 

Norn A. 

“ The ship, well-laden as bark need be, 

Lies deep in the furrow of the Iceland sea ; — 

The breeze for Zetland blows fair and soft, 

And gaily the garland ^ is fluttering aloft : 

Seven good fishes have spouted their last, 

And their jaw-bones are hanging to yard and mast ; * 

Two are for Lerwick, and two for Kirkwall, — 

And three for Burgh- Westra, the choicest of all,” 

“ Now the powers above look down and protect 
us ! ” said Bryce Snailsfoot ; “ for it is mair than 
woman’s wit that has spaed out that ferly. I saw 
them at North Ronaldshaw, that had seen the good 
bark, the Olave of Lerwick, that our worthy patron 
has such a great share in that she may be called his 
own in a manner, and they had broomed ^ the ship, 
and, as sure as there are stars in heaven, she an- 
swered them for seven fish, exact as Norna has telled 
us in her rhyme ! ” 

1 The garland is an artificial coronet, composed of ribbons by 
those young women Avho take an interest in a whaling vessel or her 
crew : it is always displayed from the rigging, and preserved with 
great care during the voyage. 

The best oil exudes from the jaw-bones of the whale, which, for 
the purpose of collecting it, are suspended to the masts of the vessel. 

3 There is established among whalers a sort of telegraphic signal, 
in which a certain number of motions, made with a broom, express 
to any other vessel the number of fish which they have caught. 


THE PIRATE. 


7 


‘‘ Umpli — seven fish exactly ? and you heard it at 
North Eonaldshaw ? ” said Captain Cleveland, “ and 
I suppose told it as a good piece of news when you 
came hither ? ” 

“ It never crossed my tongue, Captain,” answered 
the pedlar ; “ I have kend mony chapmen, travelling 
merchants, and such like, neglect their goods to carry 
clashes and clavers up and down, from one country- 
side to another; but that is no traffic of mine. I 
dinna believe I have mentioned the Clave’s having 
made up her cargo to three folks since I crossed to 
Dunrossness.” 

“ But if one of those three had spoken the news 
over again, and it is two to one that such a thing 
happened, the old lady prophesies upon velvet.” 

Such was the speech of Cleveland, addressed to 
Magnus Troil, and heard without any applause. 
The Udaller’s respect for his country extended to 
its superstitions, and so did the interest which he 
took in his unfortunate kinswoman. If he never ren- 
dered a precise assent to her high supernatural pre- 
tensions, he was not at least desirous of hearing 
them disputed by others. 

“ Norna,” he said, “ his cousin,” (an emphasis on 
the word,) held no communication with Bryce 
Snailsfoot, or his acquaintances. He did not pretend 
to explain how she came by her information ; but he 
had always remarked that Scotsmen, and indeed 
strangers in general, when they came to Zetland, were 
ready to find reasons for things which remained suf- 
ficiently obscure to those whose ancestors had dwelt 
there for ages.” 

Captain Cleveland took the hint, and bowed, with- 
out attempting to defend his own scepticism. 

“ And now forward, my brave hearts,” said the 


8 


THE TIHATE. 


Udaller; *'and may all have as good tidings as I 
have ! Three whales cannot but yield — let me 
think how many hogsheads ” 

There was an obvious reluctance on the part of 
the guests to be the next in consulting the oracle of 
the tent. 

“ Gude news are welcome to some folks, if they 
came frae the deil himsell,” said Mistress Baby 
Yellowley, addressing the Lady Glowrowrum, — 
for a similarity of disposition in some respects had 
made a sort of intimacy betwixt them — “ hut I 
think, my leddy, that this has ower mickle of rank 
witchcraft in it to have the countenance of douce 
Christian folks like you and me, my leddy.” 

“ There may be something in what you say, my 
dame,” replied the good Lady Glowrowrum ; “ but 
we Hialtlanders are no just like other folks ; and 
this woman, if she be a witch, being the Fowd’s 
friend and near kinswoman, it will be ill taen if we 
haena our fortunes spaed like a’ the rest of them ; 
and sae my nieces may e’en step forward in their 
turn, and nae harm dune. They will hae time to 
repent, ye ken, in the course of nature, if there be 
ony thing wrang in it. Mistress Yellowley.” 

While others remained under similar uncertainty 
and apprehension, Halcro, who saw by the knit- 
ting of the old Udaller’s brows, and by a certain 
impatient shuffle of his right foot, like the motion 
of a man who with difficulty refrains from stamping, 
that his patience began to wax rather thin, gallantly 
declared, that he himself would, in his own per- 
son, and not as a procurator for others, put the next 
query to the Pythoness. He paused a minute — 
collected his rhymes, and thus addressed her ; 


THE PIRATE. 


9 


Claud Halcro. 

“ Mother doubtful, Mother dread, 

Dweller of the Fitful-head, 

Thou hast conn’d full many a rhyme, 

That lives upon the surge of time : 

Tell me, shall my lays be sung. 

Like Hacon’s of the golden tongue, 

Long after Halcro’s dead and gone ? 

Or, shall Hialtland’s minstrel own 
One note to rival glorious John ? 

The voice of the sibyl immediately replied, from 
her sanctuary, 

Norna. 

“ The infant loves the rattle’s noise; 

Age, double childhood, hath its toys ; 

But different far the descant rings. 

As strikes a different hand the strings. 

The Eagle mounts the polar sky — 

The Imber-goose, unskill’d to fly. 

Must be content to glide along, 

Where seal and sea-dog list his song.’* 

Halcro bit his lip, shrugged his shoulders, and 
then, instantly recovering his good-humour, and the 
ready, though slovenly power of extemporaneous 
composition, with which long habit had invested 
him, he gallantly rejoined, 

Claud Halcro. 

** Be mine the Imber-goose to play. 

And haunt lone cave and silent bay ; — 

The archer’s aim so shall I shun — 

So shall I ’scape the levell’d gun — 

Content my verse’s tuneless jingle, 

With Thule’s sounding tides to mingle, 

While, to the ear of wandering wight, 

Upon the distant headland’s height. 

Soften’d by murmur of the sea, 

The rude sounds seem like harmony ! " 


10 


THE PIRATE. 


As the little bard stepped back, with an alert 
gait, and satisfied air, general applause followed 
the spirited manner in which he had acquiesced in 
the doom which levelled him with an Imber-goose. 
But his resigned and courageous submission did 
not even yet encourage any other person to consult 
the redoubted Norna. 

“ The coward fools ! ” said the Udaller. “ Are you 
too afraid. Captain Cleveland, to speak to an old wo- 
man ? — Ask her any thing — ask her whether the 
twelve-gun sloop at Kirkwall he your consort or no.” 

Cleveland looked at Minna, and probably con- 
ceiving that she watched with anxiety his answer 
to her father’s question, he collected himself, after a 
moment’s hesitation. 

I never was afraid of man or woman. — Master 
Halcro, you have heard the question which our host 
desires me to ask — put it in my name, and in your 
own way — I pretend to as little skill in poetry as I 
do in witchcraft.” 

Halcro did not wait to be invited twice, but, 
grasping Captain Cleveland’s hand in his, accord- 
ing to the form which the game prescribed, he put 
the query which the Udaller had dictated to the 
'’tranger, in the following words : — 

Claud Halcro. 

** Mother doubtful, Mother dread, 

Dweller of the Fitful-head, 

A gallant bark from far abroad. 

Saint Magnus hath her in his road. 

With guns and firelocks not a few — 

A silken and a scarlet crew. 

Deep stored with precious merchandise, 

Of gold, and goods of rare device — 

What interest hath our comrade bold 
In bark and crew, in goods and gold ? ” 


THE PIRATE. 


11 


There was a pause of unusual duration ere the 
oracle would return any answer ; and when she re- 
plied, it was in a lower, though an equally decided 
tone, with that which she had hitherto employed : — 


Norna. 

** Gold is ruddy, fair, and free, 

Blood is crimson, and dark to see ; — 

I look’d out on Saint Magnus Bay, , . ? 

And I saw a falcon that struck her prey, — 

A gobbet of flesh in her beak she bore, 

And talons and singles are dripping with gore ; 

Let him that asks after them look on his hand. 

And if there is blood on’t, he’s one of their band.” 

Cleveland smiled scornfully, and held out his 
hand, — “ Few men have been on the Spanish main 
as often as I have, without having had to do with 
the Guarda Costas once and again ; but there never 
was aught like a stain on my hand that a wet towel 
would not wipe away.” 

The Udaller added his voice potential — “There 
is never peace with Spaniards beyond the Line, — 
I have heard Captain Tragendeck and honest old 
Commodore Rummelaer say so an hundred times, 
and they have both been down in the Bay of Hon- 
duras, and all thereabouts. — T hate all Spaniards, 
since they came here and reft the Fair Isle men of 
their vivers in 1558. ^ I have heard my grand- 

i The Admiral of the Spanish Armada was wrecked on the 
Fair Isle, half way betwixt the Orkney and Zetland Archipe- 
lago. The Duke of Medina Sidonia landed, with some of his 
people, and pillaged the islanders of their winter stores. These 
strangers are remembered as having remained on the island by 
force, and on bad terms with the inhabitants, till spring returned, 
when they effected their escape. 


12 


THE PIRATE. 


father speak of it ; and there is an old Dutch hiS' 
tory somewhere about the house, that shows what 
work they made in the Low Countries long since. 
There is neither mercy nor faith in them.” 

“ True — true, my old friend,” said Cleveland ; 
** they are as jealous of their Indian possessions as 
an old man of his young bride ; and if they can 
catch you at disadvantage, the mines for your life 
is the word, — and so we fight them with our col- 
ours nailed to the mast.” 

“That is the way,” shouted the Udaller; “the 
old British jack should never down ! When I think 
of the wooden walls, I almost think myself an Eng- 
lishman, only it would be becoming too like my 
Scottish neighbours ; — but come, no offence to any 
here, gentlemen — all are friends, and all are wel- 
come. — Come, Brenda, go on with the play — do 
you speak next, you have Norse rhymes enough, we 
all know.” 

“ But none that suit the game we play at, father,” 
said Brenda, drawing back. 

“ Nonsense ! ” said her father, pushing her on- 
ward, while Halcro seized on her reluctant hand; 
“ never let mistimed modesty mar honest mirth — 
Speak for Brenda, Halcro — it is your trade to in- 
terpret maidens’ thoughts.” 

The poet bowed to the beautiful young woman, 
with the devotion of a poet and the gallantry of a 
traveller, and having, in a whisper, reminded her 
that she was in no way responsible for the nonsense 
he was about to speak, he paused, looked upward, 
simpered as if he had caught a sudden idea, and at 
length set off in the following verses : 


THE PIRATE. 


13 


Claud Halcro. 

“ Mother doubtful, Mother dread — 

Dweller of the Fitful-head, 

Well thou kiiow’st it is thy task 
To tell what beauty will not ask; — 

Then steep thy words in wine and milk, 

And weave a doom of gold and silk, — 

For we would know, shall Brenda prove 
In love, and happy in her love ? ” 

The prophetess replied almost immediately from 
behind her curtain : — 


Norn A. 

Untouch’d by love, the maiden’s breast 
Is like the snow on Rona’s crest, 

High seated in the middle sky, 

In bright and barren purity ; 

But by the sunbeam gently kiss’d. 

Scarce by the gazing eye ’tis miss’d, 

Ere down the lonely valley stealing, 

Fresh grass and growth its course revealing. 

It cheers the flock, revives the flower. 

And decks some happy shepherd’s bower.” 

“A comfortable doctrine, and most justly spo- 
ken,” said the Udaller, seizing the blushing Brenda, 
as she was endeavouring to escape — “Never think 
shame for the matter, my girl. To be the mistress 
of some honest man’s house, and the means of 
maintaining some old Norse name, making neigh- 
bours happy, the poor easy, and relieving strangers, 
is the most creditable lot a young woman can look 
to, and I heartily wish it to all here. — Come, who 
speaks next ? — good husbands are going — Maddie 
Groatsettar — my pretty Clara, come and have your 
share.’* 


THE PIRATE. 


The Lady Glowrowrum shook her head, and 

“ could not/’ she said, “ altogether approve ” 

“ Enough said — enough said,” replied Magnus ; 
no compulsion ; but the play shall go on till we 
are tired of it. Here, Minna — I have got you at 
command. Stand forth, my girl — there are plenty 
of things to be ashamed of besides old-fashioned and 
innocent pleasantry. — Come, I will speak for you 
myself — though I a.m not sure I can remember 
rhyme enough for it.” 

There was a slight colour which passed rapidly 
over Minna’s face, but she instantly regained her 
composure, and stood erect by her father, as one su- 
perior to any little jest to which her situation might 
give rise. 

Her father, after some rubbing of his brow, and 
other mechanical efforts to assist his memory, at 
length recovered verse sufficient to put the follow- 
ing query, though in less gallant strains than those 
of Halcro : — 


Magnus Troil. 

“ Mother, speak, and do not tarry, 

Here’s a maiden fain would marry. 

Shall she marry, ay or not ? 

If she marry, what’s her lot ? ” 

A deep sigh was uttered within the tabernacle of 
the soothsayer, as if she compassionated the subject 
of the doom which she was obliged to pronounce. 
She then, as usual, returned her response : — 


Norna. 

‘*TJntouch’d by love, the maiden’s breast 
Is like the snow on Rona’s crest; 


THE PIRATE. 


IS 


So pure, so free from earthly dye, 

It seems, whilst leaning on the sky, 

Part of the heaven to which ’tis nigh ; 

But passion, like the wild March rain, 

May soil the wreath with many a stain. 

We gaze — the lovely vision’s gone — 

A torrent fills the bed of stone, 

That, hurrying to destruction’s shock, 

Leaps headlong from the lofty rock,” 

The Udaller heard this reply with high resent* 
ment. “ By the hones of the Martyr,” he said, his 
bold visage becoming suddenly ruddy, “ this is an 
abuse of courtesy ! and, were it any but yourself 
that had classed my daughter’s name and the word 
destruction together, they had better have left the 
word unspoken. But come forth of the tent, thou 
old galdragon,” ^ he added, with a smile — “I should 
have known that thou canst not long joy in any 
thing that smacks of mirth, God help thee !” His 
summons received no answer ; and, after waiting a 
moment, he again addressed her — “ ISTay, never be 
sullen with me, kinswoman, though I did speak a 
hasty word — thou knowest I bear malice to no one, 
least of all to thee — so come forth, and let us shake 
hands. — Thou mightst have foretold the wreck of 
my ship and boats, or a bad herring-fishery, and I 
should have said never a word ; but Minna or 
Brenda, you know, are things which touch me 
nearer. But come out, shake hands, and there let 
there be an end on’t.” 

Norna returned no answer whatever to his re- 
peated invocations, and the company began to look 
upon each other with some surprise, when the 
Udaller, raising the skin which covered the en- 
trance of the tent, discovered that the interior was 

1 Galdra-Kinna — the Norse for a sorceress. 


THE PIRATE. 


i6 

empty. The wonder was now general, and not un- 
mixed with fear ; for it seemed impossible that Norna 
could have, in any manner, escaped from the taber- 
nacle in which she was enclosed, without having 
been discovered by the company. Gone, however, 
she was, and the Udaller, after a moment’s consider- 
ation, dropt the skin-curtain again over the entrance 
of the tent. 

“ My friends,” he said, with a cheerful counte- 
nance, “ we have long known my kinswoman, and 
that her ways are not like those of the ordinary 
folks of this world. But she means well by Hialt- 
land, and hath the love of a sister for me, and for 
my house; and no guest of mine needs either to 
fear evil, or to take offence, at her hand. I have little 
doubt she will be with us at dinner-time.” 

“ Now, Heaven forbid ! ” said Mrs. Baby Yellow- 
ley — “ for, my gude Leddy Glowrowrum, to tell 
your leddyship the truth, I likena cummers that can 
come and gae like a glance of the sun, or the whisk 
of a whirlwind.” 

“ Speak lower, speak lower,” said the Lady Glow- 
rowrum, “and be thankful that yon carlin hasna 
ta’en the house-side away wi’ her. The like of her 
have played warse pranks, and so has she hersell, 
unless she is the sairer lied on.” 

Similar murmurs ran through the rest of the com- 
pany, until the Udaller uplifted his stentorian and 
imperative voice to put them to silence, and invited, 
or rather commanded, the attendance of his guests 
to behold the boats set off for the haaf or deep-sea 
fishing. 

“ The wind has been high since sunrise,” he said, 
“ and had kept the boats in the bay ; but now it was 
favourable, and they would sail immediately.” 


THE PIRATE. 


17 


This sudden alteration of the weather occasioned 
sundry nods and winks amongst the guests, who 
were not indisposed to connect it with Norna’s sud- 
den disappearance ; but without giving vent to ob- 
servations which could not but be disagreeable to 
their host, they followed his stately step to the shore, 
as the herd of deer follows the leading stag, with 
all manner of respectful observance.^ (a)* 

1 Note I. — Fortune-telling Rhymes. 

2 See Editor’s Notes at the end of the Volume. Wherever a 
similar reference occurs, the reader will understand that the same 
direction applies. 


VOL. II. — 2 


CHAPTER II. 


There was a laughing devil in his sneer, 

That raised emotions both of rage and fear ; 

And where his frown of hatred darkly fell, 

Hope withering fled — and Mercy sigh’d farewelL 

The Corsair, Canto I. 


The ling or white fishery is the principal employ- 
ment of the natives of Zetland, and was formerly 
that upon which the gentry chiefly depended for 
their income, and the poor for their subsistence. The 
fishing season is therefore, like the harvest of an 
agricultural country, the busiest and most important, 
as well as the most animating, period of the year. 

The fishermen of each district assemble at par- 
ticular stations, with their boats and crews, and 
erect upon the shore small huts, composed of shingle 
and covered with turf, for their temporary lodging, 
and skeos, or drying-houses, for the fish ; so that 
the lonely beach at once assumes the appear- 
ance of an Indian town. The banks to which 
they repair for the Haaf fishing, are often many 
miles distant from the station where the fish is 
dried; so that they are always twenty or thirty 
hours absent, frequently longer; and under unfa- 
vourable circumstances of wind and tide, they re- 
main at sea, with a very small stock of provisions, 
and in a boat of a construction which seems ex- 
tremely slender, for two or three days, and are 
sometimes heard of no more. The departure of 


THE PIRATE. 


*9 


the fishers, therefore, on this occupation, has in it 
a character of danger and of suffering, which ren- 
ders it dignified, and the anxiety of the females 
who remain on the beach, watching the departure 
of the lessening boat, or anxiously looking out for 
its return, gives pathos to the scene.^ 

The scene, therefore, was in busy and anxious 
animation, when the Udaller and his friends ap- 
peared on the beach. The various crews of about 
thirty boats, amounting each to from three to five 
or six men, were taking leave of their wives and 
female relatives, and jumping on board their long 
Norway skiffs, where their lines and tackle lay ready 
stowed. Magnus was not an idle spectator of the 
scene ; he went from one place to another, enquiring 
into the state of their provisions for the voyage, and 
their preparations for the fishing — now and then, 
with a rough Dutch or Norse oath, abusing them 
for blockheads, for going to sea with their boats 
indifferently found, but always ending by ordering 

* Dr. Edmonston, the ingenious author of a View of the Ancient 
and Present State of the Zetland Islands, has placed this part of 
the subject in an interesting light. “ It is truly painful to wit- 
ness the anxiety and distress which the wives of these poor men 
suffer on the approach of a storm. Regardless of fatigue, they 
leave their homes, and fly to the spot where they expect their hus- 
bands to land, or ascend the summit of a rock, to look out for them 
on the bosom of the deep. Should they get the glimpse of a sail, 
they watch, with trembling solicitude, its alternate rise and dis- 
appearance on the waves ; and tliough often tranquillized by the 
safe arrival of the objects of their search, yet it sometimes is their lot 
‘to hail the bark that never can return/ Subject to the influence 
of a variable climate, and engaged on a sea naturally tempestuous, 
with rapid currents, scarcely a season passes over without the oc- 
currence of some fatal accident or hairbreadth escape.” — View, 
^’c. of the Zetland Islands, vol. i. p. 238. Many interesting partic- 
ulars respecting the fisheries and agriculture of Zetland, as well 
as its antiquities, may be found in the work we have quoted. 


20 


THE PIRATE. 


from his own stores a gallon of gin, a lispund of 
meal, or some similar essential addition to their 
sea-stores. The hardy sailors, on receiving such 
favours, expressed their thanks in the brief gruff 
manner which their landlord best approved ; but the 
women were more clamorous in their gratitude, 
which Magnus was often obliged to silence by 
cursing all female tongues from Eve’s downwards. 

At length all were on board and ready, the sails 
were hoisted, the signal for departure given, the 
rowers began to pull, and all started from the shore, 
in strong emulation to get first to the fishing ground, 
and to have their lines set before the rest ; an ex- 
ploit to which no little consequence was attached 
by the boat’s crew who should be happy enough 
to perform it. 

While they were yet within hearing of the shore, 
they chanted an ancient Norse ditty, appropriate 
to the occasion, of which Claud Halcro had executed 
the following literal translation : — 

“ Farewell, merry maidens, to song, and to laugh, 

For the brave lads of Westra are bound to the Haaf ; 

And we must have labour, and hunger, and pain. 

Ere we dance with the maids of Dunrossness again. 

“ For now, in our trim boats of Noroway deal. 

We must dance on the waves, with the porpoise and seal; 
The breeze it shall pipe, so it pipe not too high, 

And the gull be our songstress whene’er she flits by. 

Sing on, my brave bird, while we follow, like thee. 

By bank, shoal, and quicksand, the swarms of the sea ; 

And when twenty-score fishes are straining our line, 

Sing louder, brave bird, for their spoils shall be thine. 

“ We’ll sing while we bait, and we’ll sing when we haul, 
For the deeps of the Haaf have enough for us all : 

There is torsk for the gentle, and skale for the carle. 

And there’s wealth for bold Magnus, the son of the earl. 


THE PIRATE. 


21 


“ Huzza! my brave comrades, give way for the Haaf, 

We shall sooner come back to the dance and the laugh ; 

For life without mirth is a lamp without oil; 

Then, mirth and long life to the bold Magnus Troil! ” 

The rude words of the song were soon drowned 
in the ripple of the waves, but the tune continued 
long to mingle with the sound of wind and sea, and 
the boats were like so many black specks on the 
surface of the ocean, diminishing by degrees as they 
bore far and farther seaward ; while the ear could 
distinguish touches of the human voice, almost 
drowned amid that of the elements. 

The fishermen’s wives looked their last after the 
parting sails, and were now departing slowly, with 
downcast and anxious looks, towards the huts in 
which they were to make arrangements for prepar- 
ing and drying the fish, with which they hoped 
to see their husbands and friends return deeply 
laden. Here and there an old sibyl displayed the 
superior importance of her experience, by predicting, 
from the appearance of the atmosphere, that the 
wind would be fair or foul, while others recom- 
mended a vow to the Kirk of St. Ninian’s for the 
safety of their men and boats, (an ancient Catholic 
superstition, not yet wholly abolished,) and others, 
but in a low and timorous tone, regretted to their 
companions, that Norna of Fitful-head had been 
suffered to depart in discontent that morning from 
Burgh-Westra, “and, of all days in the year, that 
they suld have contrived to give her displeasure on 
the first day of the white fishing ! ” 

The gentry, guests of Magnus Troil, having whiled 
away as much time as could be so disposed of, in 
viewing the little armament set sail, and in con- 
versing with the poor women who had seen theil 


22 


THE PIRATE. 


friends embark in it, began now to separate into 
various groups and parties, which strolled in dif- 
ferent directions, as fancy led them, to enjoy what 
may be called the clair-obscure of a Zetland sum- 
mer day, which, though without the brilliant sun- 
shine that , cheers other countries during the fine 
season, has a mild and pleasing character of its own, 
that softens while it saddens landscapes, which, in 
their own lonely, bare, and monotonous tone, have 
something in them stern as well as barren. 

In one of the loneliest recesses of the coast, 
where a deep indenture of the rocks gave the tide 
access to the cavern, or, as it is called, the Helyer, 
of Swartaster, Minna Troil was walking with Cap- 
tain Cleveland. They had probably chosen that 
walk, as being little liable to interruption from 
others ; for, as the force of the tide rendered the 
place unfit either for fishing or sailing, so it was not 
the ordinary resort of walkers, on account of its 
being the supposed habitation of a Mermaid, a race 
which Norwegian superstition invests with magical, 
as well as mischievous qualities. Here, therefore, 
Minna wandered with her lover. 

A small spot of milk-white sand, that stretched 
beneath one of the precipices which walled in the 
creek on either side, afforded them space for a dry, 
firm, and pleasant walk of about an hundred yards, 
terminated at one extremity by a dark stretch of 
the bay, which, scarce touched by the wind, seemed 
almost as smooth as glass, and which was seen from 
between two lofty rocks, the jaws of the creek, or 
indenture, that approached each other above, as if 
they wished to meet over the dark tide that separ- 
ated them. The other end of their promenade was 
closed by a lofty and almost unscaleable precipice, 


THE PIRATE. 


23 


the abode of hundreds of sea-fowl of different kinds, 
in the bottom of which the huge helyer, or sea-cave, 
itself yawned, as if for the purpose of swallowing 
up the advancing tide, which it seemed to receive 
into an abyss of immeasurable depth and extent. 
The entrance to this dismal cavern consisted not in 
a single arch, as usual, but was divided into two, by 
a huge pillar of natural rock, which, rising out of 
the sea, and extending to the top of the cavern, 
seemed to lend its support to the roof, and thus 
formed a double portal to the helyer, on which the 
fishermen and peasants had bestowed the rude name 
of the Devil’s Nostrils. In this wild scene, lonely 
and undisturbed but by the clang of the sea-fowl, 
Cleveland had already met with Minna Troil more 
than once ; for with her it was a favourite walk, as 
the objects which it presented agreed peculiarly 
with the love of the wild, the melancholy, and the 
wonderful. But now the conversation in which she 
was earnestly engaged, was such as entirely to 
withdraw her attention, as well as that of her com- 
panion, from the scenery around them. 

“ You cannot deny it,” she said ; “ you have given 
way to feelings respecting this young man, which 
indicate prejudice and violence, — the prejudice un- 
merited, as far as you are concerned at least, and 
the violence equally imprudent and unjustifiable.” 

“ I should have thought,” replied Cleveland, “ that 
the service I rendered him yesterday might have 
freed me from such a charge. I do not talk of my 
own risk, for I have lived in danger, and love it ; it 
is not every one, however, would have ventured so 
near the furious animal to save one with whom they 
had no connexion.” 

“ It is not every one, indeed, who could have 


24 


THE PIRATE. 


saved him,” answered Minna, gravely ; “ but every 
one who has courage and generosity would have at- 
tempted it. The giddy -brained Claud Halcro would 
have done as much as you, had his strength been 
equal to his courage, — my father would have done 
as much, though having such just cause of resent- 
ment against the young man, for his vain and brag- 
gart abuse of our hospitality. Do not, therefore, 
boast of your exploit too much, my good friend, lest 
you should make me think that it required too great 
an effort. I know you love not Mordaunt Mertoun, 
though you exposed your own life to save his.” 

“Will you allow nothing, then,” said Cleveland, 
‘‘for the long misery I was made to endure from 
the common and prevailing report, that this beard- 
less bird-hunter stood betwixt me and what I on 
earth coveted most — the affections of Minna Troil?” 

He spoke in a tone at once impassioned and 
insinuating, and his whole language and manner 
seemed to express a grace and elegance, which 
formed the most striking contrast with the speech 
and gesture of the unpolished seaman, which he 
usually affected or exhibited. But his apology was 
unsatisfactory to Minna. 

“You have known,” she said, “perhaps too soon, 
and too well, how little you had to fear, — if you 
indeed feared, — that Mertoun, or any other, had 
interest. with Minna Troil. — Nay, truce to thanks 
and protestations ; I would accept it as the best proof 
of gratitude, that you would be reconciled with this 
youth, or at least avoid every quarrel with him.” 

“ That we should be friends, Minna, is impossible,” 
replied Cleveland ; “ even the love I bear you, the 
most powerful emotion that my heart ever knew, 
cannot work that miracle.” 


THE PIRATE. 


25 


“And why, I pray you?” said Minna; “there 
have been no evil offences between you, but rather 
an exchange of mutual services ; why can you not 
be friends ? — I have many reasons to wish it.” 

“ And can you, then, forget the slights which he 
has cast upon Brenda, and on yourself, and on your 
father’s house ? ” 

“I can forgive them all,” said Minna; — “can 
you not say so much, who have in truth received 
no offence ? ” 

Cleveland looked down, and paused for an instant; 
then raised his head, and replied, “ I might easily 
deceive you, Minna, and promise you what my 
soul tells me is an impossibility ; but I am forced 
to use too much deceit with others, and with you 
I will use none. I cannot be friend to this young 
man ; — there is a natural dislike — an instinctive 
aversion — something like a principle of repulsion 
in our mutual nature, which makes us odious to 
each other. Ask himself — he will tell you he has 
the same antipathy against me. The obligation he 
conferred on me was a bridle to my resentment; 
but I was so‘ galled by the restraint, that I could 
have gnawed the curb till my lips were bloody.” 

“ You have worn what you are wont to call your 
iron mask so long, that your features,” replied 
Minna, “ retain the impression of its rigidity even 
when it is removed.” 

“ You do me injustice, Minna,” replied her lover, 
“ and you are angry with me because I deal with 
you plainly and honestly. Plainly and honestly, 
however, will I say, that I cannot be Mertoun’s 
friend, but it shall be his own fault, not mine, if I 
am ever his enemy. I seek not to injure him ; but 
do not ask me to love him. And of this remain 


z6 


THE PIRATE. 


satisfied, that it would be vain even if I could do so ; 
for as sure as I attempted any advances towards his 
confidence, so sure would I be to awaken his disgust 
and suspicion. Leave us to the exercise of our nat- 
ural feelings, which, as they will unquestionably 
keep us as far separate as possible, are most likely 
to prevent any possible interference with each other. 

— Does this satisfy you ? ” 

“It must,” said Minna, since you tell me there 
is no remedy. — And now tell me why you looked 
so grave when you heard of your consort’s arrival, 

— for that it is her I have no doubt, — in the port 
of Kirkwall ?” 

“I fear,” replied Cleveland, “the consequences 
of that vessel’s arrival with her crew, as cocnpre- 
hending the ruin of my fondest hopes. I had made 
some progress in your father’s favour, and, with 
time, might have made more, when hither come 
Hawkins and the rest to blight my prospects for 
ever. I told you on what terms we parted. I then 
commanded a vessel braver and better found than 
their own, with a crow who, at my slightest nod, 
would have faced fiends armed with their own fiery 
element ; but I now stand alone, a single man, des- 
titute of all means to overawe or to restrain them ; 
and they will soon show so plainly the ungovern- 
able license of their habits and dispositions, that 
ruin to themselves and to me will in all probability 
be the consequence.” 

“Do not fear it,” said Minna; “my father can 
never be so unjust as to hold you liable for the 
offences of others.” 

“ But what will Magnus Troil say to my own 
demerits, fair Minna ? ” said Cleveland, smiling. 

“ My father is a Zetlander, or rather a Norwegian,” 


THE PIRATE. 


said Minna, ‘‘one of an oppressed race, who will 
not care whether you fought against the Spaniards, 
who are the tyrants of the New World, or against 
the Dutch and English, who have succeeded to 
their usurped dominions. His own ancestors sup- 
ported and exercised the freedom of the seas in 
those gallant barks, whose pennons were the dread 
of all Europe.” 

“ I fear, nevertheless,” said Cleveland, “ that the 
descendant of an ancient Sea-King will scarce ac- 
knowledge a fitting acquaintance in a modern rover. 
I have not disguised from you that I have reason to 
dread the English laws ; and Magnus, though a great 
enemy to taxes, imposts, scat, wattle, and so forth, 
has no idea of latitude upon points of a more general 
character ; — he would willingly reeve a rope to the 
yard-arm for the benefit of an unfortunate buccanier.” 

“Do not suppose so,” said Minna; “he himself 
suffers too much oppression from the tyrannical laws 
of our proud neighbours of Scotland. I trust he 
will soon be able to rise in resistance against them. 
The enemy — such I will call them — are now 
divided amongst themselves, and every vessel from 
their coast brings intelligence of fresh commotions — 
the Highlands against the Lowlands — the Wil- 
liamites against the Jacobites — the Whigs against 
the Tories, and, to sum the whole, the kingdom of 
England against that of Scotland. What is there, 
as Claud Halcro well hinted, to prevent our availing 
ourselves of the quarrels of these robbers, to assert 
the independence of which we are deprived ? ” 

“To hoist the raven standard on the Castle of 
Scalloway,” said Cleveland, in imitation of her tone 
and manner, “and proclaim your father Earl Mag- 
nus the First ! ” 


28 


THE PIRATE. 


“Earl Magnus the Seventh, if it please you,” 
answered Minna; “for six of his ancestors have 
worn, or were entitled to wear, the coronet before 
him. — You laugh at my ardour, — but what is 
there to prevent all this ?” 

“Nothing will prevent it,” replied Cleveland, 
“ because it will never be attempted — Any thing 
might prevent it, that is equal in strength to the 
long-boat of a British man-of-war.” 

“ You treat us with scorn, sir,” said Minna ; 
“yet yourself should know what a few resolved 
men may perform.” 

“ But they must be armed, Minna,” replied Cleve- 
land, “and willing to place their lives upon each 
desperate adventure. — Think not of such visions. 
Denmark has been cut down into a second-rate 
kingdom, incapable of exchanging a single broad- 
side with England ; Norway is a starving wilder- 
ness ; and, in these islands, the love of independence 
has been suppressed by a long term of subjection, 
or shows itself but in a few muttered growls over 
the. bowl and bottle. And, were your men as will- 
ing warriors as their ancestors, what could the un- 
armed crews of a few fishing-boats do against the 
British navy ? — Think no more of it, sweet Minna 
— it is a dream, and T must term it so, though it 
makes your eye so bright, and your step so noble.” 

“It is indeed a dream!” said Minna, looking 
down, “ and it ill becomes a daughter of Hialtland 
to look or to move like a freewoman — Our eye 
should be on the ground, and our step slow and re- 
luctant, as that of one who obeys a taskmaster.” 

“ There are lands,” said Cleveland, “ in which 
the eye may look bright upon groves of the palm 
and the cocoa, and where the foot may move light 


THE PIRATE. 


29 


as a galley under sail, over fields carpeted with 
flowers, and savannahs surrounded by aromatic 
thickets, and where subjection is unknown, except 
that of the brave to the bravest, and of all to the 
most beautiful.” 

Minna paused a moment ere she spoke, and then 
answered, “ No, Cleveland. My own rude country 
has charms for me, even desolate as you think it, 
and depressed as it surely is, which no other land 
on earth can offer to me. I endeavour in vain to 
represent to myself those visions of trees, and of 
groves, which my eye never saw ; but my imagina- 
tion can conceive no sight in nature more sublime 
chan these waves, when agitated by a storm, or more 
beautiful, than when they come, as they now do, 
rolling in calm tranquillity to the shore. Not the 
fairest scene in a foreign land, — not the brightest 
sunbeam that ever shone upon the richest land- 
scape, would win my thoughts for a moment from 
that lofty rock, misty hill, and wide-rolling ocean. 
Hialtland is the land of my deceased ancestors, and 
of my living father; and in Hialtland will I live 
and die.” 

“ Then in Hialtland,” answered Cleveland, “ will 
I too live and die. I will not go to Kirkwall, — I 
will not make my existence known to my comrades, 
from whom it were else hard for me to escape. 
Your father loves me, Minna ; who knows whether 
long attention, anxious care, might not bring him 
to receive me into his family ? Who would regard 
the length of a voyage that was certain to termi- 
nate in happiness ? ” 

“ Dream not of such an issue,” said Minna ; “ it 
is impossible. While you live in my father’s houses 
— while you receive his assistance, and share his 


THE PIRATE. 


30 

table, you will find him the generous friend, and 
the hearty host ; but touch him on what concerns 
his name and family, and the frank-hearted Udaller 
will start up before you the haughty and proud de- 
scendant of a Norwegian Jarl. See you, — a mo- 
ment’s suspicion has fallen on Mordaunt Mertoun, 
and he has banished from his favour the youth 
whom he so lately loved as a son. No one must 
ally with his house that is not of untainted north- 
ern descent.” 

“ And mine may be so, for aught that is known 
to me upon the subject,” said Cleveland. 

“How!” said Minna; “have you any reason to 
believe yourself of Norse descent ? ” 

“ I have told you before,” replied Cleveland, “ that 
my family is totally unknown to me. I spent my 
earliest days upon a solitary plantation in the little 
island of Tortuga, under the charge of my father, 
then a different person from what he afterwards be- 
came. We were plundered by the Spaniards, and 
reduced to such extremity of poverty, that my 
father, in desperation, and in thirst of revenge, 
took up arms, and having become chief of a little 
band, who were in the same circumstances, became 
a buccanier, as it is called, and cruized against 
Spain, with various vicissitudes of good and bad 
fortune, until, while he interfered to check some 
violence of his companions, he fell by their liands 
— no uncommon fate among the captains of these 
rovers. But whence my father came, or what was 
the place of his birth, I know not, fair Minna, nor 
have I ever had a curious thought on the subject.” 

“He was a Briton, at least, your unfortunate 
father ? ” said Minna. 

“ I have no doubt of it,” said Cleveland ; “ his 


THE PIRATE. 


31 


name, which I have rendered too formidable to be 
openly spoken, is an English one ; and his acquaint- 
ance with the English language, and even with Eng- 
lish literature, together with the pains which he 
took, in better days, to teach me both, plainly spoke 
him to be an Englishman. If the rude bearing 
which I display towards others is not the genuine 
character of my mind and manners, it is to my 
father, Minna, that I owe any share of better 
thoughts and principles, which may render me 
worthy, in some small degree, of your notice and 
approbation. And yet it sometimes seems to me, 
that I have two different characters ; for I cannot 
bring myself to believe, that I, who now walk this 
lone beach with the lovely Minna Troil, and am 
permitted to speak to her of the passion which I 
have cherished, have ever been the daring leader of 
the bold band whose name was as terrible as a 
tornado.” 

“ You had not been permitted,” said Minna, “ to 
use that bold language towards the daughter of 
Magnus Troil, had you not been the brave and un- 
daunted leader, who, with so small means, has made 
his name so formidable. My heart is like that of 
a maiden of the ancient days, and is to be won, not 
by fair words, but by gallant deeds.” 

“ Alas ! that heart,” said Cleveland ; “ and what 
is it that I may do — what is it that man can do, to 
win in it the interest which I desire ? ” 

“ Rejoin your friends — pursue your fortunes — 
leave the rest to destiny,” said Minna. “Should 
you return, the leader of a gallant fleet, who can 
tell what may befall ? ” 

“ And what shall assure me, that, when I return 
— if return I ever shall — I may not find Minna 


32 


THE PIRATE. 


Troil a bride or a spouse ? — No, Minna, I will not 
trust to destiny the only object worth attaining, 
which my stormy voyage in life has yet offered 
me.” 

“ Hear me,” said Minna. “ I will bind myself to 
you, if you dare accept such an engagement, by the 
promise of Odin,^ the most sacred of our northern 
rites which are yet practised among us, that I will 
never favour another, until you resign the preten- 
sions which I have given to you. — Will that satisfy 
you ? — for more I cannot — more I will not give.” 

“Then with that,” said Cleveland, after a mo- 
ment’s pause, “I must perforce be satisfied; — but 
remember, it is yourself that throw me back upon 
a mode of life which the laws of Britain denounce 
as criminal, and which the violent passions of the 
daring men by whom it is pursued, have rendered 
infamous.” 

“ But I,” said Minna, “ am superior to such preju- 
dices. In warring with England, I see their laws 
in no other light than as if you were engaged with 
an enemy, who, in fulness of pride and power, has 
declared he will give his antagonist no quarter. A 
brave man will not fight the worse for this ; — and, 
for the manners of your comrades, so that they do 
not infect your own, why should their evil report 
attach to you ? ” 

Cleveland gazed at her as she spoke, with a degree 
of wondering admiration, in which, at the same time, 
there lurked a smile at her simplicity. 

“ I could not,” he said, “ have believed, that such 
high courage could have been found united with 
such ignorance of the world, as the world is now 
wielded. For my manners, they who best know 
I Note II. — Promise of Odin. 


THE PIRATE. 


33 


me will readily allow, that I have done my best, at 
the risk of my popularity, and of my life itself, to 
mitigate the ferocity of my mates ; but how can you 
teach humanity to men burning with vengeance 
against the world by whom they are proscribed, or 
teach them temperance and moderation in enjoying 
the pleasures which chance throws in their way, to 
vary a life which would be otherwise one constant 
scene of peril and hardship ? — But this promise, 
Minna — this promise, which is all I am to receive 
in guerdon for my faithful attachment — let me at 
least lose no time in claiming that.” 

“ It must not be rendered here, but in Kirkwall. 
— We must invoke, to witness the engagement, the 
Spirit which presides over the ancient Circle of Stennis. 
But perhaps you fear to name the ancient Father of 
the Slain too, the Severe, the Terrible ? 

Cleveland smiled. 

" Do me the justice to think, lovely Minna, that 
lam little subject to fear real causes of terror ; and 
for those which are visionary, I have no sympathy 
whatever.” 

“ You believe not in them, then ? ” said Minna, 
“ and are so far better suited to be Brenda’s lover 
than mine.” 

" I will believe,” replied Cleveland, “ in whatever 
you believe. The whole inhabitants of that Val- 
halla, about which you converse so much with that 
fiddling, rhyming fool, Claud Halcro — all these 
shall become living and existing things to my cre- 
dulity. But, Minna, do not ask me to fear any of 
them.” 

“ Fear ! no — not to fear them, surely,” replied 
the maiden ; “ for, not before Thor or Odin, when 
they approached in the fulness of their terrors, did 

VOL. II. — 3 


34 


THE PIRATE. 


the heroes of my dauntless race yield one foot in 
retreat. Nor do I own them as Deities — a better 
faith prevents so foul an error. But, in our own 
conception, they are powerful spirits for good or 
evil. And when you boast not to fear them, be- 
think you that you defy an enemy of a kind you 
have never yet encountered.” 

“ Not in these northern latitudes,” said the lover, 
with a smile, “ where hitherto I have seen but 
angels ; but I have faced, in my time, the demons 
of the Equinoctial Line, which we rovers suppose 
to be as powerful, and as malignant, as those of the 
North.” 

“ Have you, then, witnessed those wonders that 
are beyond the visible world?” said Minna, with 
some degree of awe. 

Cleveland composed his countenance, and replied, 
— “ A short while before my father’s death, I came, 
though then very young, into the command of a 
sloop, manned with thirty as desperate fellows as 
ever handled a musket. We cruized for a long while 
with bad success, taking nothing but wretched small- 
craft, which were destined to catch turtle, or other- 
wise loaded with coarse and worthless trumpery. I 
had much ado to prevent my comrades from aveng- 
ing upon the crews of those baubling shallops the 
disappointment which they had occasioned to us. At 
length, we grew desperate, and made a descent on 
a village, where we were told we should intercept 
the mules of a certain Spanish governor, laden with 
treasure. We succeeded in carrying the place ; but 
while I endeavoured to save the inhabitants from 
the fury of my followers, the muleteers, with their 
precious cargo, escaped into the neighbouring woods. 
This filled up the measure of my unpopularity. My 


THE PIUATE. 


35 


people, who had been long discontented, became 
openly mutinous. I was deposed from my com- 
mand in solemn council, and condemned, as ‘having 
too little luck and too much humanity for the pro- 
fession I had undertaken, to be marooned,^ as the 
phrase goes, on one of those little sandy, bushy 
islets, which are called, in the West Indies, keys, , 
and which are frequented only by turtle and by sea- 
fowl. Many of tliem are supposed to be haunted (b) 
— some by the demons worshipped by the old in- 
habitants — some by Caciques and others, whom the 
Spaniards had put to death by torture, to compel 
them to discover their hidden treasures, and others 
by the various spectres in which sailors of all nations 
have implicit faith.^ My place of banishment, called 
Coffin-key, about two leagues and a half to the south- 
east of Bermudas, was so infamous as the resort of 
these supernatural inhabitants, that I believe the 
wealth of Mexico would not have persuaded the 
bravest of the scoundrels who put me ashore there, 
to have spent an hour on the islet alone, even in 
broad daylight ; and when they rowed off, they 
pulled for the sloop like men that dared not cast 
their eyes behind them. And there they left me, to 
subsist as I might, on a speck of unproductive sand, 
surrounded by the boundless Atlantic, and haunted, 
as they supposed, by malignant demons.” 

1 To maroon a seaman, signified to abandon him on a deso- 
late coast or island — a piece of cruelty often practised by Pirates 
and Buccaniers. 

2 An elder brother, now no more, who was educated in the navy, 
and had been a midshipman in Bodney’s squadron in the West 
Indies, used to astonish the author’s boyhood with tales of those 
haunted islets. On one of them, called, I believe, Coffin-key, the 
seamen positively refused to pass the night, and came off every 
evening while they were engaged in completing the watering of 
the vessel, returning the following sunrise. 


36 


THE PIRATE. 


“ And what was the consequence ? ” said Minna, 
eagerly. 

“ I supported life,” said the adventurer, “ at the 
expense of such sea-fowl, aptly called boobies, as 
were silly enough to let me approach so near as to 
knock them down with a stick ; and by means of 
, turtle-eggs, when these complaisant birds became 
better acquainted with the mischievous disposition 
of the human species, and more shy of course of my 
advances.” 

And the demons of whom you spoke ? ” — con- 
tinued Minna. 

“ I had my secret apprehensions upon their ac- 
count,” said Cleveland : “ In open daylight, or in 
absolute darkness, I did not greatly apprehend their 
approach ; but in the misty dawn of the morning, 
or when evening was about to fall, I saw, for the 
first week of my abode on the key, many a dim and 
undefined spectre, now resembling a Spaniard, with 
his capa wrapped around him, and his huge som- 
brero, as large as an umbrella, upon his head, — now 
a Dutch sailor, with his rough cap and trunk-hose, 
— and now an Indian Cacique, with his feathery 
crown and long lance of cane.” 

Did you not approach and address them ? ” said 
Minna. 

“ I always approached them,” replied the seaman ; 
but, — I grieve to disappoint your expectations, 
my fair friend, — whenever I drew near them, the 
phantom changed into a bush, or a piece of drift- 
wood, or a wreath of mist, or some such cause of 
deception, until at last I was taught by experience 
to cheat myself no longer with such visions, and 
continued a solitary inhabitant of Coffin-key, as 
little alarmed by visionary terrors, as I ever was 


THE TIRATE. 


37 

in the great cabin of a stout vessel, with a score of 
companions around me.” 

“ You have cheated me into listening to a tale 
of nothing,” said Minna ; V but how long did you 
continue on the island ? ” 

“ Four weeks of wretched existence,” said Cleve- 
land, “ when I was relieved by the crew of a vessel 
which came thither a-turtling. Yet my miserable 
seclusion was not entirely useless to me ; for on 
that spot of barren sand I found, or rather forged, 
the iron mask, which has since been my chief 
security against treason, or mutiny of my followers. 
It was there I formed the resolution to seem no 
softer hearted, nor better instructed — no more 
humane, and no more scrupulous, than those with 
whom fortune had leagued me. I thought over my 
former story, and saw that seeming more brave, 
skilful, and enterprising than others, had gained 
me command and respect, and that seeming more 
gently nurtured, and more civilized than they, had 
made them envy and hate me as a being of another 
species. I bargained with myself, then, that since 
I could not lay aside my superiority of intellect and 
education, I would do my best to disguise, and to 
sink in the rude seaman, all appearance of better 
feeling and better accomplishments. I foresaw then 
what has since happened, that, under the appear- 
ance of daring obduracy, I should acquire such a 
habitual command over my followers, that I might 
use it for the insurance of discipline, and for reliev- 
ing the distresses of the wretches who fell under 
our power. I saw, in short, that to attain author- 
ity, I must assume the external semblance, at least, 
of those over whom it was to be exercised. The 
tidings of my father’s fate, while it excited me to 


38 


THE EIRATE. 


wrath and to revenge, confirmed the resolution I 
had adopted. He also had fallen a victim to his 
superiority of mind, morals, and manners, above 
those whom he commanded. They were wont to 
call him the Gentleman ; and, unquestionably, they 
thought he waited some favourable opportunity to 
reconcile himself, perhaps at their expense, to those 
existing forms of society his habits seemed best to 
suit with, and, even therefore, they murdered him. 
Nature and justice alike called on me for revenge. 
I was soon at the head of a new body of the adven- 
turers, who are so numerous in those islands. I 
sought not after those by whom I had been myself 
marooned, but after the wretches who had betrayed 
my father ; and on them I took a revenge so severe, 
that it was of itself sufficient to stamp me with 
the character of that inexorable ferocity which I 
was desirous tor be thought to possess, and which, 
perhaps, was gradually creeping on my natural dis- 
position in actual earnest. My manner, speech, and 
conduct, seemed so totally changed, that those who 
formerly knew me were disposed to ascribe the al- 
teration to my intercourse with the demons who 
haunted the sands of Coffin-key ; nay, there were 
some superstitious enough to believe, that I had 
actually formed a league with them.” 

“ I tremble to hear the rest ! ” said Minna ; “ did 
you not become the monster of courage and cruelty 
whose character you assumed ? ” 

“ If I have escaped being so, it is to you, Minna,” 
replied Cleveland, that the wonder must be as- 
cribed. It is true, I have always endeavoured to 
distinguish myself rather by acts of adventurous 
valour, than by schemes of revenge or of plunder, 
and that at length I could save lives by a rude jest, 


THE PIRATE. 


39 


and sometimes, by the excess of the measures which 
I myself proposed, could induce those under me to 
intercede in favour of prisoners ; so that the seem- 
ing severity of my character has better served the 
cause of humanity, than had I appeared directly 
devoted to it.” 

He ceased, and, as Minna replied not a word, 
both remained silent for a little space, when Cleve- 
land again resumed the discourse : — 

“ You are silent,” he said, “ Miss Troil, and I have 
injured myself in your opinion by the frankness 
with which I have laid my character before you. I 
may truly say that my natural disposition has been 
controlled, but not altered, by the untoward circum- 
stances in which I am placed.” 

“ I am uncertain,” said Minna, after a moment’s 
consideration, “ whether you had been thus candid, 
had you not known I should soon see your com- 
rades, and discover, from their conversation and 
their manners, what you would otherwise gladly 
have concealed.” 

“ You do me injustice, Minna, cruel injustice. 
From the instant that you knew me to be a sailor 
of fortune, an adventurer, a biiccanier, or, if you 
will have the broad word, a pirate, what had you 
to expect less than what I have told you ? ” 

“ You speak too truly,” said Minna — “ all this 
I might have anticipated, and I know not how I 
should have expected it otherwise. But it seemed 
to me that a war on the cruel and superstitious 
Spaniards had in it something ennobling — some- 
thing that refined the fierce employment to which 
you have just now given its true and dreaded name. 
I thought that the independent warriors of the 
Western Ocean, raised up, as it were, to punish the 


40 


THE PIRATE. 


wrongs of so many murdered and plundered tribes 
must have had something of gallant elevation, like 
that of the Sons of the North, whose long galleys 
avenged on so many coasts the oppressions of degen- 
erate Rome. This I thought, and this I dreamed — 
I grieve that I am awakened and undeceived. Yet 
I blame you not for the erring of my own fancy. — 
Farewell ; we must now part.” 

“ Say at least,” said Cleveland, “ that you do not 
hold me in horror for having told you the truth.” 

“ I must have time for reflection,” said Minna, 
“ time to weigh what you have said, ere I can fully 
understand my own feelings. Thus much, however, 
I can say even now, that he who pursues the wicked 
purpose of plunder, by means of blood and cruelty, 
and who must veil his remains of natural remorse 
under an affectation of superior profligacy, is not, and 
cannot be, the lover whom Minna Troil expected to 
find in Cleveland ; and if she still love him, it must 
be as a penitent, and not as a hero.” 

So saying, she extricated herself from his grasp, 
(for he still endeavoured to detain her,) making an 
imperative sign to him to forbear from following 
her. — ‘‘ She is gone,” said Cleveland, looking after 
her ; “ wild and fanciful as she is, I expected not 
this. — She startled not at the name of my perilous 
course of life, yet seems totally unprepared for the 
evil which must necessarily attend it ; and so all the 
merit I have gained by my resemblance to a Norse 
Champion, or King of the Sea, is to be lost at once, 
because a gang of pirates do not prove to be a choir 
of saints. I would that Rackam, Hawkins, and the 
rest, had been at the bottom of the Race of Port- 
land — I would the Pentland Frith had swept them 
to hell rather than to Orkney ! I will not, however, 


THE EIRATE. 


4 ^ 


quit the chase of this angel for all that these fiends 
can do. I will — I must to Orkney before the Udal- 
ler makes his voyage thither — our meeting might 
alarm even his blunt understanding, although, thank 
Heaven, in this wild country, men know the nature 
of our trade only by hearsay, through our honest 
friends the Dutch, who take care never to speak 
very ill of those they make money by. — Well, if 
fortune would but stand my friend with this beau- 
tiful enthusiast, I would pursue her wheel no far- 
ther at sea, but set myself down amongst these 
rocks, as happy as if they were so many groves of 
bananas and palmettoes.” 

With these, and such thoughts, half rolling in his 
bosom, half expressed in indistinct hints and mur- 
murs, the pirate Cleveland returned to the mansion 
of Burgh-Westra. 


CHAPTEK III. 


There was shaking of hands, and sorrow of heart, 

For the hour was approaching when merry folks must part ; 
So we call’d for our horses, and ask’d for our way, 

While the jolly old landlord said, “ Nothing’s to pay.” 

Lilliput, a Poem. 


We do not dwell upon the festivities of the day, 
which had nothing in them to interest the reader 
particularly. The table groaned under the usual 
plenty, which was disposed of by the guests with 
the usual appetite — the bowl of punch was filled and 
emptied with the same celerity as usual — the men 
quaffed, and the women laughed — Claud Halcro 
rhymed, punned, and praised John Dry den — the 
Udaller bumpered and sung choruses — and the 
evening concluded, as usual, in the Rigging-loft, as 
it was Magnus Troil’s pleasure to term the dancing 
apartment. 

It was then and there that Cleveland, approach- 
ing Magnus, where he sat betwixt his two daugh- 
ters, intimated his intention of going to Kirkwall 
in a small brig, which Bryce Snailsfoot, who had 
disposed of his goods with unprecedented celerity, 
had freighted thither, to procure a supply. 

Magnus heard the sudden proposal of his guest 
with surprise, not un mingled with displeasure, and 
demanded sharply of Cleveland, how long it was 
since he had learned to prefer Bryce Snailsfoot’s 


THE PIRATE. 


43 


company to his own ? Cleveland answered, with 
his usual hluntness of manner, that time and tide 
tarried for no one, and that he had his own particu- 
lar reasons for making his trip to Kirkwall sooner 
than the Udaller proposed to set sail — that he 
hoped to meet with him and his daughters at the 
great fair which was now closely approaching, and 
might perhaps find it possible to return to Zetland 
along with them. 

While he spoke this, Brenda kept her eye as 
much upon her sister as it was possible to do, with- 
out exciting general observation. She remarked, 
that Minna’s pale cheek became yet paler while 
Cleveland spoke, and that she seemed, by com- 
pressing her lips, and slightly knitting her brows, 
to be in the act of repressing the effects of strong 
interior emotion. But she spoke not ; and when 
Cleveland, having bidden adieu to the Udaller, ap- 
proached to salute her, as was then the custom, 
she received his farewell without trusting herself to 
attempt a reply. 

Brenda had her own trial approaching ; for Mor- 
daunt Mertoun, once so much loved by her father, 
was now in the act of making his cold parting from 
him, without receiving a single look of friendly re- 
gard. There was, indeed, sarcasm in the tone with 
which Magnus wished the youth a good journey, 
and recommended to him, if he met a bonny lass 
by the way, not to dream that she was in love, be- 
cause she chanced to jest with him. Mertoun col- 
oured at what he felt as an insult, though it was 
but half intelligible to him; but he remembered 
Brenda, and suppressed every feeling of resentment. 
He proceeded to take his leave of the sisters. Minna, 
whose heart was considerably softened towards him. 


44 


THE PIRATE. 


received his farewell with some degree of interest ; 
but Brenda’s grief was so visible in the kindness 
of her manner, and the moisture which gathered 
in her eye, that it was noticed even by the Udal- 
ler, who exclaimed, half angrily, “Why, ay, lass, 
that may be right enough, for he was an old ac- 
quaintance ; but mind ! I have no will that he 
remain one.” 

Mertoun, who was slowly leaving the apartment, 
half overheard this disparaging observation, and half 
turned round to resent it. But his purpose failed 
him when he saw that Brenda had been obliged to 
have recourse to her handkerchief to hide her emo- 
tion, and the sense that it was excited by his de- 
parture, obliterated every thought of her father’s 
unkindness. He retired — the other guests followed 
his example ; and many of them, like Cleveland 
and himself, took their leave over-night, with the 
intention of commencing their homeward journey 
on the succeeding morning. 

That night, the mutual sorrow of Minna and 
Brenda, if it could not wholly remove the reserve 
which had estranged the sisters from each other, at 
least melted all its frozen and unkindly symptoms. 
They wept in each other’s arms ; and though neither 
spoke, yet each became dearer to the other ; because 
they felt that the grief which called forth these 
drops, had a source common to them both. 

It is probable, that though Brenda’s tears were 
most abundant, the grief of Minna was most deeply 
seated ; for, long after the younger had sobbed 
herself asleep, like a child, upon her sister’s bosom, 
Minna lay awake, watching the dubious twilight, 
while tear after tear slowly gathered in her eye, 
and found a current down her cheek, as soon as it 


THE PIRATE. 


45 


became too heavy to be supported by her long black 
silken eyelashes. As she lay, bewildered among 
the sorrowful thoughts which supplied these tears, 
she was surprised to distinguish, beneath the win- 
dow, the sounds of music. • At first she supposed 
it was some freak of Claud Halcro, whose fantastic 
humour sometimes indulged itself in such serenades. 
But it was not the gue of the old minstrel, but the 
guitar, that she heard ; an instrument which none 
in the island knew how to touch except Cleveland, 
who had learned, in his intercourse with the South- 
American Spaniards, to play on it with superior 
execution. Perhaps it was in those climates also 
that he had learned the song, which, though he now 
sung it under the window of a maiden of Thule, 
had certainly never been composed for the native 
of a climate so northerly and so severe, since it 
spoke of productions of the earth and skies which 
are there unknown. 


1 . 

“ Love wakes and weeps 
While Beauty - sleeps : 

0 for Music’s softest numbers, 

To prompt a theme, 

For Beauty’s dream, 

Soft as the pillow of her slumbers J 


2 . 

Through groves of palm 
Sigh gales of balm. 

Fire-flies on the air are wheeling ; 
While through the gloom 
Comes soft perfume, 

The distant beds of flowers revealing. 


46 


THE PIRATE. 


3 . 

“ 0 wake and live, 

No dream can give 
A shadow’d bliss, the real excelling ; 

No longer sleep. 

From lattice peep. 

And list the tale that Love is telling ! 

The voice of Cleveland was deep, rich, and manly, 
and accorded well with the Spanish air, to which 
the words, probably a translation from the same 
language, had been adapted. His invocation would 
not probably have been fruitless, could Minna have 
arisen without awaking her sister. But that was im- 
possible ; for Brenda, who, as we have already men- 
tioned, had wept bitterly before she had sunk into 
repose, now lay with her face on her sister’s neck, 
and one arm stretched around her, in the attitude 
of a child which has cried itself asleep in the arms 
of its nurse, bt was impossible for Minna to extri- 
cate herself from her grasp without awaking her; 
and she could not, therefore, execute her hasty pur- 
pose, of donning her gown, and approaching the 
window to speak with Cleveland, who, she had no 
doubt, had resorted to this contrivance to procure 
an interview. The restraint was sufficiently provok- 
ing, for it was more than probable that her lover 
came to take his last farewell ; but that Brenda, 
inimical as she seemed to be of late towards Cleve- 
land, should awake and witness it, was a thought 
not to be endured. 

There was a short pause, in which Minna en- 
deavoured more than once, with as much gentleness 
as possible, to unclasp Brenda’s arm from her neck ; 
but whenever she attempted it, the slumberer 
muttered some little pettish sound, like a child 


THE PIRATE. 


47 


disturbed in its sleep, which sufficiently showed 
that perseverance in the attempt would awaken 
her fully. 

To her great vexation, therefore, Minna was com- 
pelled to remain still and silent ; when her lover, as 
if determined upon gaining her ear by music of 
another strain, sung the following fragment of a 
sea-ditty : — 

“ Farewell ! Farewell ! the voice you hear, 

Has left its last soft tone with you, — 

Its next must join the seaward cheer, 

And shout among the shouting crew. 

“ The accents which I scarce could form 
Beneath your frown’s controlling check, 

Must give the word, above the storm, 

To cut the mast, and clear the wreck. 

“ The timid eye I dared not raise, — 

The hand that shook when press’d to thine. 

Must point the guns upon the chase, — 

Must bid the deadly cutlass shine. 

“ To all I love, or hope, or fear,— 

Honour, or own, a long adieu ! 

To all that life has soft and dear. 

Farewell ! save memory of you ! ” ^ (c) 

He was again silent ; and again she, to whom the 
serenade was addressed, strove in vain to arise with- 
out rousing her sister. It was impossible ; and she 
had nothing before her but the unhappy thought 
that Cleveland was taking leave in his desolation, 
without a single glance, or a single word. He, too, 
whose temper was so fiery, yet who subjected his 

1 I cannot suppress the pride of saying, that these lines have been 
beautifully set to original music, by Mrs. Arkwright, of Derbyshire 


48 


THE EIRATE. 


violent mood with such sedulous attention to her 
will — could she but have stolen a moment to say 
adieu — to caution him against new quarrels with 
Mertoun — to implore him to detach himself from 
such comrades as he had described — could she but 
have done this, who could say what effect such part- 
ing admonitions might have had upon his character 
— nay, upon the future events of his life ? 

Tantalized by such thoughts, Minna was about to 
make another and decisive effort, when she heard 
voices beneath the window, and thought she could 
distinguish that they were those of Cleveland and 
Mertoun, speaking in a sharp tone, which, at the same 
time, seemed cautiously suppressed, as if the speak- 
ers feared being overheard. Alarm now mingled 
with her former desire to rise from bed, and she 
accomplished at once the purpose which she had 
so often attempted in vain. Brenda’s arm was un- 
loosed from her sister’s neck, without the sleeper 
receiving more alarm than provoked two or three 
unintelligible murmurs ; while, with equal speed 
and silence, Minna put on some part of her dress, 
with the intention to steal to the window. But, 
ere she could accomplish this, the sound of the 
voices without was exchanged for that of blows 
and struggling, which terminated suddenly by a 
deep groan. 

Terrified at this last signal of mischief, Minna 
sprung to the window, and endeavoured to open it, 
for the persons were so close under the walls of the 
house that she could not see them, save by putting 
her head out of the casement. The iron hasp was 
stiff and rusted, and, as generally happens, the haste 
with which she laboured to undo it only rendered 
the task more difficult. When it was accomplished, 


THE PIRATE. 


49 


and Minna had eagerly thrust her body half out at 
the casement, those who had created the sounds 
which alarmed her were become invisible, except- 
ing that she saw a shadow cross the moonlight, the 
substance of which must have been in the act of 
turning a corner, which concealed it from her sight. 
The shadow moved slowly, and seemed that of a 
man who supported another upon his shoulders ; an 
indication which put the climax to Minna’s agony 
of mind. The window was not above eight feet 
from the ground, and she hesitated not to throw 
herself from it hastily, and to pursue the object 
which had excited her terror. 

But when she came to the corner of the buildings 
from which the shadow seemed to have been pro- 
jected, she discovered nothing which could point out 
the way that the figure had gone ; and, after a mo- 
ment’s consideration, became sensible that all at- 
tempts at pursuit would be alike wild and fruitless. 
Besides all the projections and recesses of the many- 
angled mansion, and its numerous offices — besides 
the various cellars, store-houses, stables, and so forth, 
which defied her solitary search, there was a range 
of low rocks, stretching down to the haven, and 
which were, in fact, a continuation of the ridge 
which formed its pier. These rocks had many in- 
dentures, hollows, and caverns, into any one of 
which the figure to which the shadow belonged 
might have retired with his fatal burden ; for fa- 
tal, she feared, it was most likely to prove. 

A moment’s reflection, as we have said, convinced 
Minna of the folly of further pursuit. Her next 
thought was to alarm the family ; but what tale had 
she to tell, and of whom was that tale to be told ? 
— On the other hand, the wounded man — if indeed 

VOL. II. — 4 


50 


THE PIRATE. 


he were wounded — alas, if indeed he were not 
mortally wounded ! — might not be past the reach 
of assistance.; and, with this idea, she was about 
to raise her voice, when she was interrupted by that 
of Claud Halcro, who was returning apparently from 
the haven, and singing, in his manner, a scrap of an 
old Norse ditty, which might run thus in English : — 

“ And you shall deal the funeral dole; 

Ay, deal it, mother mine, 

To weary body, and to heavy soul, 

The white bread and the wine. 

“ And you shall deal my horses of pride ; 

Ay, deal them, mother mine ; 

And you shall deal my lands so wide, 

And deal my castles nine. 

“ But deal not vengeance for the deed. 

And deal not for the crime ; 

The body to its place, and the soul to Heaven's grace. 
And the rest in God’s own time.” 

The singular adaptation of these rhymes to the 
situation in which she found herself, seemed to 
Minna like a warning from Heaven. We are speak- 
ing of a land of omens and superstitions, and per- 
haps will scarce be understood by those whose lim- 
ited imagination cannot conceive how strongly these 
operate upon the human mind during a certain 
progress of society. A line of Virgil, turned up 
casually, was received in the seventeenth century, 
and in the court of England,^ as an intimation of 
future events ; and no wonder that a maiden of the 
distant and wild isles of Zetland should have con- 
sidered as an injunction from Heaven, verses which 

1 The celebrated Sortes Virgilianse were resorted to by Charles 
I. and his courtiers, as a mode of prying into futurity. 


THE PIRATE. 


51 


happened to convey a sense analogous to her present 
situation. 

“ I will be silent/’ she muttered, — ''I will seal 
my lips — 

‘ The body to its place, and the soul to Heaven^s grace, 
And the rest in God’s own time.’ ” 

“ Who speaks there ? ” said Claud Halcro, in some 
alarm ; for he had not, in his travels in foreign parts, 
been able by any means to rid himself of his native 
superstitions. In the condition to which fear and 
horror had reduced her, Minna was at first unable to 
reply ; and Halcro, fixing his eyes upon the female 
white figure, which he saw indistinctly, (for she stood 
in the shadow of the house, and the morning was 
thick and misty,) began to conjure her in an ancient 
rhyme which occurred to him as suited for the occa- 
sion, and which had in its gibberish a wild and 
unearthly sound, which may be lost in the ensuing 
translation : — 

“ Saint Magnus control thee, that martyr of treason; 

Saint Ronan rebuke thee, with rhyme and with reason ; 

By the mass of Saint Martin, the might of Saint Mary, 

Be thou gone, or thy weird shall be w’orse if thou tarry! 

If of good, go hence and hallow thee, — 

If of ill, let the earth swallow thee, — 

If thou’rt of air, let the grey mist fold thee, — • 

If of earth, let the swart mine hold thee, — 

If a Pixie, seek thy ring, — 

If a Nixie, seek thy spring ; — 

If on middle earth thou’st been 
Slave of sorrow, shame, and sin. 

Hast eat the bread of toil and strife. 

And dree’d the lot which men call life. 

Begone to thy stone ! for thy coffin is scant of thee. 

The worm, thy playfellow, wails for the want of thee ; — 


52 


THE PIRATE. 


Hence, houseless ghost ! let the earth hide thee, 

Till Michael shall blow the blast, see that there thou bide 
thee! — 

Phantom, fly hence ! take the Cross for a token, 

Hence pass till Hallowmass! — my spell is spoken.” 

“ It is I, Halcro,” muttered Minna, in a tone so 
thin and low, that it might have passed for the faint 
reply of the conjured phantom. 

“ You ! — you ! ” said Halcro, his tone of alarm 
changing to one of extreme surprise ; “ by this 
moonlight, which is waning, and so it is! — Who 
could have thought to find you, my most lovely 
Night, wandering abroad in your own element ! — 
But you saw them, I reckon, as well as I ? — bold 
enough in you to follow them, though.” 

“ Saw whom ? — follow whom ? ” said Minna, 
hoping to gain some information on the subject of 
her fears and anxiety. 

“The corpse-lights which danced at the haven,” 
replied Halcro ; “ they bode no good, I promise 
you — you wot well what the old rhyme says — 

‘Where corpse-light 
Dances bright. 

Be it day or night, 

Be it by light or dark. 

There shall corpse lie stiff and stark.* 

I went half as far as the haven to look after them, 
hut they had vanished. I think I saw a boat put 
off, however, — some one bound for the Haaf, I sup- 
pose. — I would we had good news of this fishing — 
there was Norna left us in anger, — and then these 
corpse-lights! — Well, God help the while ! I am an 
old man, and can hut wish that all were well over. — 
But how now, my pretty Minna ? tears in your eyes ! 
— And now' that I see you in the fair moonlight, 


THE PIRATE. 


53 


barefooted, too, by Saint Magnus ! — Were there no 
stockings of Zetland wool soft enough for these 
pretty feet and ankles, that glance so white in the 
moonbeam ? — What, silent ! — angry, perhaps,” he 
added, in a more serious tone, “ at my nonsense ? 
For shame, silly maiden ! — Kemember I am old 
enough to be your father, and have always loved 
you as my child.” 

“I am not angry,” said Minna, constraining her- 
self to speak — “ but heard you nothing ? — saw you 
nothing ? — They must have passed you.” 

“They?” said Claud Halcro ; “what mean you 
by they ? — is it the corpse-lights ? — No, they did 
not pass by me, but I think they have passed by 
you, and blighted you with their influence, for you 
are as pale as a spectre. — Come, come, Minna,” he 
added, opening a side-door of the dwelling, “ these 
moonlight walks are fitter for old poets than for 
young maidens — And so lightly clad as you are ! 
Maiden, you should take care how you give your- 
self to the breezes of a Zetland night, for they bring 
more sleet than odours upon their wings. — But, 
maiden, go in ; for, as glorious John says — or, as he 
does not say — for I cannot remember how his verse 
chimes — but, as I say myself, in a pretty poem, 
written when my muse was in her teens, — 

Menseful maiden ne’er should rise, 

Till the first beam tinge the skies ; 

Silk- fringed eyelids still should close, 

Till the sun has kiss’d the rose ; 

Maiden’s foot we should not view, 

Mark’d with tiny print on dew, 

Till the opening flowerets spread 
Carpet meet for beauty’s tread — 

Stay, what comes next ? — let me see.” 


54 


THE PIRATE. 


When the spirit of recitation seized on Claud 
Halcro, he forgot time and place, and might have 
kept his companion in the cold air for half an hour, 
giving poetical reasons why she ought to have been 
in bed. But she interrupted him by the question, 
earnestly pronounced, yet in a voice which was 
scarcely articulate, holding Halcro, at the same 
time, with a trembling and convulsive grasp, as if 
to support herself from falling, — “ Saw you no one 
in the boat which put to sea but now ? ” 

“ Nonsense,” replied Halcro ; “ how could I see 
any one, when light and distance only enabled me 
to know that it was a boat, and not a grampus ? ” 

“ But there must have been some one in the 
boat?” repeated Minna, scarce conscious of what 
she said. 

“ Certainly,” answered the poet ; “ boats seldom 
work to windward of their own accord. — But come, 
this is all folly ; and so, as the Queen says, in an old 
play, which was revived for the stage by rare Will 
D’ Avenant, ‘ To bed — to bed — to bed ! ’ ” 

They separated, and Minna’s limbs conveyed her 
with difficulty, through several devious passages, to 
her own chamber, where she stretched herself cau- 
tiously beside her still sleeping sister, with a mind 
harassed with the most agonizing apprehensions. 
That she had heard Cleveland, she was positive — 
the tenor of the songs left her no doubt on that sub- 
ject. If not equally certain that she had heard 
young Mertoun’s voice in hot quarrel with her lover, 
the impression to that effect was strong on her 
mind. The groan, with which the struggle seemed 
to terminate — the fearful indication from which it 
seemed that the conqueror had borne off the lifeless 
body of his victim — all tended to prove that some 


THE PIRATE. 


55 


fatal event had concluded the contest. And which 
of the unhappy men had fallen ? — which had met 
a bloody death ? — which had achieved a fatal and 
a bloody victory ? — These were questions to which 
the still small voice of interior conviction answered, 
that her lover Cleveland, from character, temper, 
and habits, was most likely to have been the sur- 
vivor of the fray. She received from the reflection 
an involuntary consolation which she almost de- 
tested herself for admitting, when she recollected 
that it was at once darkened with her lover’s guilt, 
and embittered with the destruction of Brenda’s 
happiness for ever. 

“ Innocent, unhappy sister ! ” such were her re- 
flections ; “ thou that art ten times better than I, 
because so unpretending — so unassuming in thine 
excellence ! How is it possible that I should cease 
to feel a pang, which is only transferred from my 
bosom to thine ? ” 

As these cruel thoughts crossed her mind, she 
could not refrain from straining her sister so close 
to her bosom, that, after a heavy sigh, Brenda 
awoke. 

“ Sister,” she said, “ is it you ? — I dreamed I lay 
on one of those monuments which Claud Halcro 
described to us, where the efiigy of the inhabitant 
beneath lies carved in stone upon the sepulchre. I 
dreamed such a marble form lay by my side, and 
that it suddenly acquired enough of life and anima- 
tion to fold me to its cold, moist bosom — and it is 
yours, Minna, that is indeed so chilly. — You are ill, 
my dearest Minna ! for God’s sake, let me rise and 
call Euphane Fea. — What ails you ? has Norna 
been here again ? ” 

“ Call no one hither,” said Minna, detaining her ; 


56 


THE PIRATE. 


“ nothing ails me for which any one has a remedy 
— nothing but apprehensions of evil worse than 
even Norna could prophesy. But God is above all, 
my dear Brenda ; and let us pray to him to turn, 
as he only can, our evil into good.” 

They did jointly repeat their usual prayer for 
strength and protection from on high, and again 
composed themselves to sleep, suffering no word 
save “ God bless you,” to pass betwixt them, when 
their devotions were finished ; thus scrupulously 
dedicating to Heaven their last waking words, if 
human frailty prevented them from commanding 
their last waking thoughts. Brenda slept first, and 
Minna, strongly resisting the dark and evil pre- 
sentiments which again began to crowd themselves 
upon her imagination, was at last so fortunate as to 
slumber also. 

The storm which Halcro had expected began 
about daybreak, — a squall, heavy with wind and 
rain, such as is often felt, even during the finest part 
of the season, in these latitudes. At the whistle of 
the wind, and the clatter of the rain on the shingle- 
roofing of the fishers’ huts, many a poor woman was 
awakened, and called on her children to hold up 
their little hands, and join in prayer for the safety 
of the dear husband and father, who was even then 
at the mercy of the disturbed elements. Around 
the house of Burgh- Wes tra, chimneys howled, and 
windows clashed. The props and rafters of the 
higher parts of the building, most of them formed 
out of wreck-wood, groaned and quivered, as fear- 
ing to be again dispersed by the tempest. But the 
daughters of Magnus Troil continued to sleep as 
softly and as sweetly as if the hand of Chantrey had 
formed them out of statuary-marble. The squall had 


THE PIRATE. 


57 


passed away, and the sunbeams, dispersing the clouds 
which drifted to leeward, shone full through the 
lattice, when Minna first started from the profound 
sleep into which fatigue and mental exhaustion had 
lulled her, and, raising herself on her arm, began to 
recall events, which, after this interval of profound 
repose, seemed almost to resemble the baseless 
visions of the night. She almost doubted if what 
she recalled of horror, previous to her starting from 
her bed, was not indeed the fiction of a dream, sug- 
gested, perhaps, by^ some external sounds. 

will see Claud Halcro instantly,” she said; 
“ he may know something of these strange noises, 
as he was stirring at the time.” 

With that she sprung from bed, but hardly stood 
upright on the floor, ere her sister exclaimed, 
“ Gracious Heaven ! Minna, what ails your foot — 
your ankle ? ” 

She looked down, and saw with surprise, which 
amounted to agony, that both her feet, but particu- 
larly one of them, was stained with dark crimson, 
resembling the colour of dried blood. 

Without attempting to answer Brenda, she 
rushed to the window, and cast a desperate look on 
the grass beneath, for there she knew she must have 
contracted the fatal stain. But the rain, which had 
fallen there in treble quantity, as well from the 
heavens, as from the eaves of the house, had washed 
away that guilty witness, if indeed such had ever 
existed. All was fresh and fair, and the blades 
of grass, overcharged and bent with rain-drops, glit- 
tered like diamonds in the bright morning sun. 

While Minna stared upon the spangled verdure, 
with her full dark eyes fixed and enlarged to circles 
by the intensity of her terror, Brenda was hanging 


58 


THE PIRATE. 


about her, and with many an eager enquiry, pressed 
to know whether or how she had hurt herself ? 

“A piece of glass cut through my shoe,” said 
Minna, bethinking herself that some excuse was 
necessary to her sister ; “ I scarce felt it at the 
time.” 

“And yet see how it has bled,” said her sister. 
“ Sweet Minna,” she added, approaching her with 
a wetted towel, “ let me wipe the blood off — the 
hurt may be worse than you think of.” 

But as she approached, Minna, who saw no other 
way of preventing discovery that the blood with 
which she was stained had never flowed in her own 
veins, harshly and hastily repelled the proffered 
kindness. Poor Brenda, unconscious of any offence 
which she had given to her sister, drew back two 
or three paces on finding her service thus unkindly 
refused, and stood gazing at Minna with looks 
in which there was more of surprise and mortified 
affection than of resentment, but which had yet 
something also of natural displeasure. 

“ Sister,” said she, “ I thought we had agreed but 
last night, that, happen to us what might, we would 
at least love each other.” 

“ Much may happen betwixt night and morning ! ” 
answered Minna, in words rather wrenched from 
her by her situation, than flowing forth the volun- 
tary interpreters of her thoughts. 

“ Much may indeed have happened in a night so 
stormy,” answered Brenda ; “ for see where the very 
wall around Euphane’s plaiit-a-cruive has been 
blown down ; but neither wind nor rain, nor aught 
else, can cool our affection, Minna.” 

“ But that may chance,” replied Minna, “ which 
may convert it into ” 


THE PIRATE. 


59 


The rest of the sentence she muttered in a tone so 
indistinct, that it could not be apprehended ; while, 
at the same time, she washed the blood-stains from 
her feet and left ankle. Brenda, who still remained 
looking on at some distance, endeavoured in vain to 
assume some tone which might re-establish kind- 
ness and confidence betwixt them. 

“You were right,” she said, “Minna, to suffer no 
one to help you to dress so simple a scratch — stand- 
ing where I do, it is scarce visible.” 

“ The most cruel wounds,” replied Minna, “ are 
those which make no outward show — Are you sure 
you see it at all ? ” 

“ O, yes ! ” replied Brenda, framing her answer as 
she thought would best please her sister ; “ I see a 
very slight scratch ; nay, now you draw on the 
stocking, I can see nothing.” 

“You do indeed see nothing,” answered Minna, 
somewhat wildly ; “ but the time will soon come 
that all — ay, all — - will be seen and known.” 

So saying, she hastily completed her dress, and 
led the way to breakfast, where she assumed her 
place amongst the guests ; but with a countenance 
so pale and haggard, and manners and speech so 
altered and so bewildered, that it excited the atten- 
tion of the whole company, and the utmost anxiety 
on the part of her father Magnus Troil. Many and 
various were the conjectures of the guests, concern- 
ing a distemperature which seemed rather mental 
than corporeal. Some hinted that the maiden had 
been struck with an evil eye, and something they 
muttered about Norna of the Fitful-head; some 
talked of the departure of Captain Cleveland, and 
murmured, “ it was a shame for a young lady to 
take on so after a landlouper, of whom no one knew 


6o 


THE PIRATE. 


any thing;” and this contemptuous epithet was in 
particular bestowed on the Captain by Mistress 
Baby Yellowley, while she was in the act of wrap- 
ping round her old skinny neck the very handsome 
oweiTay (as she called it) wherewith the said Cap- 
tain had presented her. The old Lady Glowrowrum 
had a system of her own, which she hinted to Mis- 
tress Yellowley, after thanking God that her own 
connexion with the Burgh-Westra family was by 
the lass’s mother, who was a canny Scotswoman, 
like herself. 

*•' For, as to these Troils, you see. Dame Yellow- 
ley, for as high as they hold their heads, they say 
that ken,” (winking sagaciously,) “ that there is a 
bee in their bonnet; — that Norna, as they call her, 
for it’s not her right name neither, is at whiles far 
beside her right mind, — and they that ken the 
cause, say the Fowd was some gate or other 
linked in with it, for he will never hear an ill word 
of her. But I was in Scotland then, or I might have 
kend the real cause, as weel as other folk. At ony 
rate there is a kind of wildness in the blood. Ye 
ken very weel daft folk dinna bide to be contra- 
dicted , and I’ll say that for the Fowd — he likes to 
be contradicted as ill as ony man in Zetland. But 
it shall never he said that I said ony ill of the house 
that I am sae nearly connected wi’. Only ye will 
mind, dame, it is through the Sinclairs that we are 
akin, not through the Troils, — and the Sinclairs are 
kend far and wide for a wise generation, dame. — 
But I see there is the stirrup-cup coming round.” 

“ I wonder,” said Mistress Baby to her brother, as 
soon as the Lady Glowrowrum turned from her, 
“what gars that muckle wife dame, dame, dame, 
that gate at me ? She might ken the blude of the 


THE PIRATE. 6i 

Clinkscales is as gude as ony Glowrowrum’s amang 
them.” 

The guests, meanwhile, were fast taking their de- 
parture, scarcely noticed by Magnus, who was so 
much engrossed with Minna’s indisposition, that,, 
contrary to his hospitable wont, he suffered them to 
go away unsaluted. And thus concluded, amidst 
anxiety and illness, the festival of Saint John, as 
celebrated on that season at the house of Burgh- 
Westra ; adding another caution to that of the 
Emperor of Ethiopia, — with how little security 
man can reckon upon the days which he destines to 
happiness 


CHAPTEE IV. 


But this sad evil which doth her infest, 

Doth course of natural cause far exceed, 

And housed is within her hollow breast, 

That either seems some cursed witch’s deed. 

Or evill spright that in her doth such torment breed. 

Fairy Queen, Book III., Canto III. 


The term had now elapsed, by several days, when 
Mordaunt Mertoun, as he had promised at his de- 
parture, should have returned to his father’s abode 
at Jarlshof, but there were no tidings of his arrival. 
Such delay might, at another time, have excited 
little curiosity, and no anxiety; for old Swertha, 
who took upon her the office of thinking and con- 
jecturing for. the little household, would have con- 
cluded that he had remained behind the other 
guests upon some party of sport or pleasure. But 
she knew that Mordaunt had not been lately in 
favour with Magnus Troil ; she knew that he pro- 
posed his stay at Burgh- Westra should be a short 
one, upon account of his father’s health, to whom, 
notwithstanding the little encouragement which his 
filial piety received, he paid uniform attention. 
Swertha knew all this, and she became anxious. 
She watched the looks of her master, the elder Mer- 
toun ; hut, wrapt in dark and stern uniformity of 
composure, his countenance, like the surface of a 
midnight lake, enabled no one to penetrate into 
what was beneath. His studies, his solitary meals, 
his lonely walks, succeeded each other in unvaried 


THE PIRATE. 63 

rotation, and seemed undisturbed by the least 
thought about Mordaunt’s absence. 

At length such reports reached Swertha’s ear, 
from various quarters, that she became totally un- 
able to conceal her anxiety, and resolved, at the risk 
of provoking her master into fury, or perhaps that 
of losing her place in his household, to force upon 
his notice the doubts which afflicted her own mind. 
Mordaunt’s good-humour and goodly person must 
indeed have made no small impression on the with- 
ered and selfish heart of the poor old woman, to in- 
duce her to take a course so desperate, and from 
which her friend the Ranzelman endeavoured in ♦ 
vain to deter her. Still, however, conscious that a 
miscarriage in the matter, would, like the loss of 
Trinculo’s bottle in the horse-pool, be attended not 
only with dishonour, but with infinite loss, she de- 
termined to proceed on her high emprize with as 
much caution as was consistent with the attempt. 

We have already mentioned, that it seemed a part 
of the very nature of this reserved and unsocial 
being, at least since his retreat into the utter soli- 
tude of Jarlshof, to endure no one to start a subject of 
conversation, or to put any question to him, that did 
not arise out of urgent and pressing emergency. 
Swertha was sensible, therefore, that, in order to 
open the discourse favourably which she proposed 
to hold with her master, she must contrive that it 
should originate with himself. 

To accomplish this purpose, while busied in pre- 
paring the table for Mr. Mertoun’s simple and soli- 
tary dinner-meal, she formally adorned the table 
with two covers instead of one, and made all her 
other preparations as if he was to have a guest 01 
companion at dinner. 


64 


THE PIRATE 


The artifice succeeded ; for Merton n, on coming 
from his study, no sooner saw the table thus ar- 
ranged, than he asked Swertha, who, waiting the 
effect of her stratagem as a fisher watches his 
ground-baits, was fiddling up and down the room, 
“ Whether Mordaunt was returned from Burgh- 
Westra ? ” 

This question was the cue for Swertha, and she 
answered in a voice of sorrowful anxiety, half real, 
half affected, “ Na, na ! — nae sic divot had dunted 
at their door. It wad be blithe news indeed, to 
ken that young Maister Mordaunt, puir dear bairn, 
were safe at hame.” 

‘‘ And if he be not at home, why should you lay 
a cover for him, you doting fool ? ” replied Merto,un, 
in a tone well calculated to stop the old woman’s 
proceedings. But she replied, boldly, “ that, indeed, 
somebody should take thought about Maister Mor- 
daunt ; a’ that she could do was to have seat and 
plate ready for him when he came. But she thought 
the dear bairn had been ower lang awa ; and, if she 
maun speak out, she had her ain fears when and 
whether he might ever come hame.” 

“ Your fears ! ” said Mertoun, his eyes flashing 
as they usually did when his hour of ungovernable 
passion approached ; “ do you speak of your idle fears 
to me, who know that all of your sex, that is not 
fickleness, and folly, and self-conceit, and self-will, 
is a bundle of idiotical fears, vapours, and tremors ? 
What are your fears to me, you foolish old hag ? ” 

It is an admirable quality in womankind, that, 
when a breach of the laws of natural affection comes 
under their observation, the whole sex is in arms. 
Let a rumour arise in the street of a parent that 
has misused a child, or a child that has insulted a 


THE PIRATE. 


65 


parent, — I say nothing of the case of husband and 
wife, where the interest may be accounted for in 
sympathy, — and all the women within hearing will 
take animated and decided part with the sufferer. 
Swertha, notwithstanding her greed and avarice, 
had her share of the generous feeling which does 
so much honour to her sex, and was, on this occa- 
sion, so much carried on by its impulse, that she 
confronted her master, and upbraided him with his 
hard-hearted indifference, with a boldness at which 
she herself was astonished. 

“To be sure it wasna her that suld be fearing 
for her young maister, Maister Mordaunt, even 
although he was, as she might weel say, the very 
sea-calf of her heart ; but ony other father, but his 
honour himsell, wad have had speerings made after 
the poor lad, and him gane this eight-days from 
Burgh-Westra, and naebody kend when or where 
he had gane. There wasna a bairn in the howff 
but was maining for him; for he made all their 
bits of boats with his knife ; there wadna be a dry 
eye in the parish, if aught worse than weal should 
befall him, — na, no ane, unless it might be his 
honour’s ain.” 

Mertoun had been much struck, and even silenced, 
by the insolent volubility of his insurgent house- 
keeper ; but, at the last sarcasm, he imposed on her 
silence in her turn with an audible voice, accom- 
panied with one of the most terrific glances which 
his dark eye and stern features could express. But 
Swertha, who, as she afterwards acquainted the 
Ranzelman, was wonderfully supported during the 
whole scene, would not be controlled by the loud 
voice and ferocious look of her master, but proceeded 
in the same tone as before. 

VOL. U. — 5 


66 


THE PIRATE. 


“ His honour/’ she said, “ had made an unco wark 
because a wheen bits of kists and duds, that nae- 
body had use for, had been gathered on the beach 
by the poor bodies of the township ; and here was 
the bravest lad in the country lost, and cast away, 
as it were, before his een, and nae ane asking what 
was come o’ him.” 

“What should come of him but good, you old 
fool,” answered Mr. Mertoun, “as far, at least, as 
there can be good in any of the follies he spends 
his time in ? ” 

This was spoken rather in a scornful than an 
angry tone, and Swertha, who had got into the spirit 
of the dialogue, was resolved not to let it drop, now 
that the fire of her opponent seemed to slacken. 

“ 0 ay, to be sure I am an auld fule, — but if 
Maister Mordaunt should have settled down in the 
Roost, as mair than ae boat had been lost in that 
wearifu’ squall the other morning — by good luck 
it was short as it was sharp, or naething could have 
lived in it — or if he were drowned in a loch coming 
hame on foot, or if he were killed by miss of foot- 
ing on a craig — the haill island kend how venture- 
some he was — who,” said Swertha, “will be the 
auld fule then ? ” And she added a pathetic ejacu- 
lation, that “ God would protect the poor mother- 
less bairn ! for if he had had a mother, there would 
have been search made after him before now.” 

This last sarcasm affected Mertoun powerfully, 
— his jaw quivered, his face grew pale, and he mut- 
tered to Swertha to go into his study, (where she 
was scarcely ever permitted to enter,) and fetch 
him a bottle which stood there. 

“0 ho!” quoth Swertha to herself, as she has- 
tened on the commission, “ my master knows where 


THE PIRATE. 67 

to find a cup of comfort to qualify his water with 
upon fitting occasions.” 

There was indeed a case of such bottles as were 
usually employed to hold strong waters, but the 
dust and cobwebs in which they were enveloped 
showed that they had not been touched for many 
years. With some difficulty Swertha extracted the 
cork of one of them, by the help of a fork — for cork- 
screw was there none at Jarlshof — and having as- 
certained by smell, and, in case of any mistake, by 
a moderate mouthful, that, it contained wholesome 
Barbadoes-waters, she carried it into the room, 
where her master still continued to struggle with 
his faintness. She then began to pour a small quan- 
tity into the nearest cup that she could find, wisely 
judging, that, upon a person so much unaccustomed 
to the use of spirituous liquors, a little might pro- 
duce a strong effect. But the patient signed to her 
impatiently to fill the cup, which might hold more 
than the third of an English pint measure, up to 
the very brim, and swallowed it down without 
hesitation. 

“ Now the saunts above have a care on us ! ” said 
Swertha ; “ he will be drunk as weel as mad, and 
wha is to guide him then, I wonder ? ” 

But .Mertoun’s breath and colour returned, with- 
out the slightest symptom of intoxication ; on the 
contrary, Swertha afterwards reported, that, “ al- 
though she had always had a firm opinion in favour 
of a dram, yet she never saw one work such miracles 
— he spoke mair like a man of the middle world, 
than she had ever heard him since she had entered 
his service.” 

“ Swertha,” he said, “ you are right in this mat- 
ter, and I was wrong. — Go down to the Ranzelman 


68 


THE PIRATE. 


directly, tell him to come and speak with me, with- 
out an instant’s delay, and bring me special word 
what boats and people he can command ; I will 
employ them all in the search, and they shall be 
plentifully rewarded.” 

Stimulated by the spur which rnaketh the old 
woman proverbially to trot, Swertha posted down 
to the hamlet, with all the speed of threescore, re- 
joicing that her sympathetic feelings were likely to 
achieve their own reward, having given rise to a 
quest which promised to be so lucrative, and in the 
profits whereof she was determined to have her share, 
shouting out as she went, and long before she got 
within hearing, the names of Niel Ronaldson, Sweyn 
Erickson, and the other friends and confederates 
who were interested in her mission. To say the 
truth, notwithstanding that the good dame really 
felt a deep interest in Mordaunt Mertoun, and was 
mentally troubled on account of his absence, per- 
haps few things would have disappointed her more 
than if he had at this moment started up in her 
path safe and sound, and rendered unnecessary, 
by his appearance, the expense and the bustle of 
searching after him. 

Soon did Swertha accomplish her business in the 
village, and adjust with the senators of the town- 
ship her own little share of per centage upon the 
profits likely to accrue on her mission ; and speedily 
did she return to Jarlshof, with Niel Ronaldson by 
her side, schooling him to the best of her skill in 
all the peculiarities of her master. 

“ Aboon a’ things,” she said, “ never make him 
wait for an answer ; and speak loud and distinct, 
as if you were hailing a boat, — for he downa bide 
to say the same thing twice over ; and if he asks 


THE PIRATE. 


69 


about distance, ye may make leagues for miles, for 
he kens naething about the face of the earth that 
he lives upon ; and if he speak of siller, ye may ask 
dollars for shillings, for he minds them nae mair 
than sclate-stanes.” 

Thus tutored, Niel Ronaldson was introduced 
into the presence of Mertoun, but was utterly con- 
founded to find that he could not act upon the sys- 
tem of deception which had been projected. When 
he attempted, by some exaggeration of distance and 
peril, to enhance the hire of the boats, and of the 
men, (for the search was to be by sea and land,) he 
found himself at once cut short by Mertoun, who 
showed not only the most perfect knowledge of the 
country, but of distances, tides, currents, and all 
belonging to the navigation of those seas, although 
these were topics with which he had hitherto ap- 
peared to be totally unacquainted. The Ranzelman, 
therefore, trembled when they came to speak of the 
recompense to be afforded for their exertions in the 
search ; for it was not more unlikely that Mertoun 
should be well informed of what was just and pro- 
per upon this head than upon others ; and Niel re- 
membered the storm of his fury, when, at an early 
period after he had settled at Jarlshof, he drove 
Swertha and Sweyn Erickson from his presence. 
As, however, he stood hesitating betwixt the oppo- 
site fears of asking too much or too little, Mertoun 
stopped his mouth, and ended his uncertainty, by 
promising him a recompense beyond what he dared 
have ventured to ask, with an additional gratuity, 
in case they returned with the pleasing intelligence ‘ 
that his son was safe. 

When this great point was settled, Niel Ronald- 
son, like a man of conscience, began to consider 


70 


THE PIRATE. 


earnestly the various places where search should be 
made after the young man ; and having undertaken 
faithfully that the enquiry should be prosecuted at 
all the houses of the gentry, both in this and the 
neighbouring islands, he added, that, “after all, if 
his honour would not be angry, there was ane not 
far off, that, if any body dared speer her a question, 
and if she liked to answer it, could tell more about 
Maister Mordaunt than any body else could. — Ye 
will ken wha I mean, Swertha ? Her that was down 
at the haven this morning.” Thus he concluded, 
addressing himself with a mysterious look to the 
housekeeper, which she answered with a nod and 
a wink. 

“ How mean you ? ” said Mertoun ; “ speak out, 
short and open — whom do you speak of ? ” 

“It is Norna of the Fitful-head,” said Swertha, 
“ that the Ranzelman is thinking about ; for she has 
gone up to Saint Ringan’s Kirk this morning on 
business of her own.” 

“ And what can this person know of my son ? ” 
said Mertoun ; “ she is, I believe, a wandering mad- 
woman, or impostor.” 

“ If she wanders,” said Swertha, “ it is for nae lack 
of means at hame, and that is weel known — plenty 
of a* thing has she of her ain, forby that the Fowd 
himsell would let her want naething.” 

“ But what is that to my son ? ” said Mertoun, 
impatiently. 

“ I dinna ken — she took unco pleasure in Maister 
Mordaunt from the time she first saw him, and mony 
a braw thing she gave him at ae time or another, 
forby the gowd chain that hangs about his bonny 
craig — folk say it is of fairy gold — I kenna what 
gold it is, but Bryce Snailsfoot says, that the value 


THE PIKATE. 71 

will mount to an hundred pounds English, and that 
is nae deaf nuts.” 

“Go, Konaldson,” said Mertoun, “ or else send some 
one, to seek this woman out — if you think there 
be a chance of her knowing any thing of my son.” 

“ She kens a’ thing that happens in thae islands,” 
said Niel Konaldson, “ muckle sooner than other folk, 
and that is Heaven’s truth. But as to going to the 
kirk, or the kirkyard, to speer after her, there is not 
a man in Zetland will do it, for meed or for money 
— and that’s Heaven’s truth as weel as the other.” 

“ Cowardly, superstitious fools ! ” said Mertoun. — 
“ But give me my cloak, Swertha. — This woman has 
been at Burgh -Westra — she is related to Troil’s 
family — she may know something of Mordaunt’s ab- 
sence, and its cause — I will seek her myself — She 
is at the Cross-kirk, you say ? ” 

“ No, not at the Cross-kirk, but at the auld Kirk 
of Saint Eingan’s — it’s a dowie bit, and far frae 
being canny ; and if your honour,” added Swertha, 
“ wad walk by my rule, I wad wait until she came 
back, and no trouble her when she may be mair 
busied wi’ the dead, for ony thing that we ken, than 
she is wi’ the living. The like of her carena to have 
other folk’s een on them when they are, gude sain 
us ! doing their ain particular turns.” 

Mertoun made no answer, but throwing his cloak 
loosely around him, (for the day was misty, with 
passing showers,) and leaving the decayed mansion 
of Jarlshof, he walked at a pace much faster than 
was usual with him, taking the direction of the ruin- 
ous church, which stood, as he well knew, within 
three or four miles of his dwelling. 

The Eanzelman and Swertha stood gazing after 
him in silence, until he was fairly out of ear-shot^ 


72 


THE PIRATE. 


when, looking seriously on each other, and shaking 
their sagacious heads in the same boding degree of 
vibration, they uttered their remarks in the same 
breath. 

“ Fools are aye fleet and fain,” said Swertha. 

“ Fey folk run fast,” added the Ranzelman ; and 
the thing that we are born to, we cannot win by. — I 
have known them that tried to stop folk that were 
fey. You have heard of Helen Emherson of Camsey, 
how she stopped all the boles and windows about 
the house, that her gudeman might not see daylight, 
and rise to the Haaf-fishing, because she feared foul 
weather ; and how the boat he should have sailed in 
was lost in the Roost ; and how she came back, re- 
joicing in her gudeman’s safety — but ne’er may 
care, for there she found him drowned in his own 
masking-fat, within the wa’s of his ain biggin ; and 
moreover ” 

But here Swertha reminded the Ranzelman that 
he must go down to the haven to get off the fishing- 
boats ; “ for both that my heart is sair for the bonny 
lad, and that I am fear’d he cast up of his ain accord 
before you are at sea ; and, as I have often told ye, 
my master may lead, but he winna drive ; and if ye 
do not his bidding, and get out to sea, the never a 
bodle of boat-hire will ye see.” 

“ Weel, weel, good dame,” said the Ranzelman, “ we 
will launch as fast as we can ; and by good luck, 
neither Clawson’s boat, nor Peter Grot’s, is out to 
the Haaf this morning, for a rabbit ran across the 
path as they were going on board, and they came 
back like wise men, kenning they wad be called to 
other wark this day. And a marvel it is to think, 
Swertha, how few real judicious men are left in this 
land. There is our great Udaller is weel eneugh 


THE PIRATE. 


73 


when he is fresh, but he makes ower mony voyages 
in his ship and his yawl to be lang sae ; and now, 
they say, his daughter, Mistress Minna, is sair out 
of sorts. — Then there is Norna kens muckle mair 
than other folk, but wise woman ye cannot call her. 
Our tacksman here, Maister Mertoun, his wit is 
sprung in the bowsprit, I doubt — his son is a daft 
gowk ; and I ken few of consequence hereabouts — 
excepting always myself, and maybe you, Swertha 
— but what may, in some sense or other, be called 
fules.” 

“That may be, Niel Ronaldson,” said the dame; 
“ but if you do not hasten the faster to the shore, 
you will lose tide ; and, as I said to my master some 
short time syne, wha will be the fule then ? ” 


CHAPTER V. 


I do love these ancient ruins — 

We never tread upon them but we set 
Our foot upon some reverend history ; 

And, questionless, here, in this open court, 

(Which now lies naked to the injuries 
Of stormy weather,) some men lie interr’d, 

Loved the Church so well, and gave so largely to it, 
They thought it should have canopied their bones 
Till doomsday ; — but all things have their end — 
Churches and cities, which have diseases like to men. 
Must have like death which we have. 

Duchess of Malfy. 


The ruinous church of Saint Ninian had, in its 
time, enjoyed great celebrity ; for that mighty sys- 
tem of Eoman superstition, which spread its roots 
over all Europe, had not failed to extend them even 
to this remote archipelago, and Zetland had, in the 
Catholic times, her saints, her shrines, and her rel- 
ics, which, though little known elsewhere, attracted 
the homage, and commanded the observance, of 
the simple inhabitants of Thule. Their devotion 
to this church of Saint Ninian, or, as he was pro- 
vincially termed. Saint Eingan, situated, as the edi- 
fice was, close to the sea-beach, and serving, in many 
points, as a landmark to their boats, was particularly 
obstinate, and was connected with so much super- 
stitious ceremonial and credulity, that the reformed 
clergy thought it best, by an order of the Church 
Courts, to prohibit all spiritual service within its 
walls, as tending to foster the rooted faith of the 


THE PIRATE. 


7S 


simple and rude people around in saint-worship, and 
other erroneous doctrines of the Romish Church. 

After the Church of Saint Ninian had been thus 
denounced as a seat of idolatry, and desecrated of 
course, the public worship was transferred to an- 
other church; and the roof, with its lead and its 
rafters, having been stripped from the little rude 
old Gothic building, it was left in the wilderness to 
the mercy of the elements. The fury of the un- 
controlled winds, which howled along an exposed 
space, resembling that which we have described at 
Jarlshof, very soon choked up nave and aisle, and, 
on the north-west side, which was chiefly exposed 
to the wind, hid the outside walls more than half 
way up with mounds of drifted sand, over which 
the gable-ends of the building, with the little bel- 
fry, which was built above its eastern angle, arose 
in ragged and shattered nakedness of ruin. 

Yet, deserted as it was, the Kirk of Saint Ringan 
still retained some semblance of the ancient homage 
formerly rendered there. The rude and ignorant 
fishermen of Dunrossness observed a practice, of 
which they themselves had wellnigh forgotten the 
origin, and from which the Protestant Clergy in 
vain endeavoured to deter them. When their boats 
were in extreme peril, it was common amongst them 
to propose to vow an awmous, as they termed it, 
that is, an alms, to Saint Ringan ; and when the 
danger was over, they never failed to absolve them- 
selves of their vow, by coming singly and secretly 
to the old church, and putting off their shoes and 
stockings at the entrance of the churchyard, walk- 
ing thrice around the ruins, observing that they did 
so in the course of the sun. When the circuit was 
accomplished for the third time, the votary dropped 


76 


THE PIRATE. 


his offering, usually a small silver coin, through the 
mullions of a lanceolated window, which opened 
into a side aisle, and then retired, avoiding carefully 
to look behind him till he was beyond the precincts 
which had once been hallowed ground ; for it was 
believed that the skeleton of the saint received the 
offering in his bony hand, and showed his ghastly 
death’s-head at the windpw into which it was 
thrown. 

Indeed, the scene was rendered more appalling 
to weak and ignorant minds, because the same 
stormy and eddying winds, which, on the one side 
of the church, threatened to bury the ruins with 
sand, and had, in fact, heaped it up in huge quan- 
tities, so as almost to hide the side-wall with its but- 
tresses, seemed in other places bent on uncovering 
the graves of those who had been laid to their 
long rest on the south-eastern quarter ; and, after 
an unusually hard gale, the coffins, and sometimes 
the very corpses, of those who had been interred 
without the usual cerements, were discovered, in a 
ghastly manner, to the eyes of the living. 

It was to this desolated place of worship that the 
elder Mertoun now proceeded, though without any 
of those religious or superstitious purposes with 
which the church of Saint Ringan was usually ap- 
proached. He was totally without the superstitious 
fears of the country, — nay, from the sequestered 
and sullen manner in which he lived, withdrawing 
himself from human society even when assembled 
for worship, it was the general opinion that he 
erred on the more fatal side, and believed rather 
too little than too much of that which the Church 
receives and enjoins to Christians. 

As he entered the little bay, on the shore, and 


THE PIRATE. 


77 


almost on the beach of which the ruins are situated, 
he could not help pausing for an instant, and be- 
coming sensible that the scene, as calculated to 
operate on human feelings, had been selected with 
much judgment as the site of a religious house. 
In front lay the- sea, into which two headlands, 
which formed the extremities of the bay, projected 
their gigantic causeways of dark and sable rocks, 
on the ledges of which the gulls, scouries, and other 
sea-fowl, appeared like flakes of snow ; while, upon 
the lower ranges of the cliff, stood whole lines of 
cormorants, drawn up alongside of each other, like 
soldiers in their battle array, and other living thing 
was there none to see. The sea, although not in 
a tempestuous state, was disturbed enough to rush 
on these capes with a sound like distant thunder, 
and the billows, which rose in sheets of foam half 
way up these sable rocks, formed a contrast of 
colouring equally striking and awful. 

Betwixt the extremities, or capes, of these pro- 
jecting headlands, there rolled, on the day when 
Mertoun visited the scene, a deep and dense aggrega- 
tion of clouds, through which no human eye could 
penetrate, and which, bounding the vision, and ex- 
cluding all view of the distant ocean, rendered it no 
unapt representation of the sea in the Vision of 
Mirza. whose extent was concealed by vapours, and 
clouds, and storms. The ground rising steeply from 
the sea-beach, permitting no view into the interior 
of the country, appeared a scene of irretrievable bar- 
renness, where scrubby and stunted heath, inter- 
mixed with the long bent, or coarse grass, which 
first covers sandy soils, were the only vegetables 
that could be seen. Upon a natural elevation, which 
rose above the beach in the very bottom of the bay, 


THE PIRATE. 


78 

and receded a little from the sea, so as to be with- 
out reach of the waves, arose the half-buried ruin 
which we have already described, surrounded by a 
wasted, half-ruinous, and mouldering wall, which, 
breached in several places, served still to divide 
the precincts of the cemetery. The mariners who 
were driven by accident into this solitary bay, pre- 
tended that the church was occasionally observed to 
be full of lights, and, from that circumstance, were 
used to prophesy shipwrecks and deaths by sea. 

As Mertoun approached near to the chapel, he 
adopted, insensibly, and perhaps without much pre- 
meditation, measures to avoid being himself seen, 
until he came close under the walls of the burial- 
ground, which he approached, as it. chanced, on that 
side where the sand was blowing from the graves, 
in the manner we have described. 

Here, looking through one of the gaps in the 
wall which time had made, he beheld the person 
whom he sought, occupied in a manner which as- 
sorted well with the ideas popularly entertained of 
her character, but which was otherwise sufficiently 
extraordinary. 

She was employed beside a rude monument, on 
one side of which was represented the rough out- 
line of a cavalier, or knight, on horseback, while, 
on the other, appeared a shield, with the armorial 
bearings so defaced as not to be intelligible ; which 
escutcheon was suspended by one angle, contrary 
to the modern custom, which usually places them 
straight and upright. At the foot of this pillar was 
believed to repose, as Mertoun had formerly beard, 
the bones of Ribolt Troil, one of the remote ances- 
tors of Magnus, and a man renowned for deeds of 
valorous emprize in the fifteenth century. From 


THE PIRATE. 


79 


the grave of this warrior Norna of the Fitful-head 
seemed busied in shovelling the sand, an easy task 
where it was so light and loose ; so that it seemed 
plain that she would shortly complete what the rude 
winds had begun, and make bare the bones which 
lay there interred. As she laboured, she muttered 
her magic song; for without the Runic rhyme no 
form of northern superstition was ever performed. 
We have perhaps preserved too many examples of 
these incantations ; but we. cannot help attempting 
to translate that which follows : — 

“ Champion, famed for warlike toil, 

Art thou silent, Ribolt Troil ? 

Sand, and dust, and pebbly stones. 

Are leaving bare thy giant bones. 

Who dared touch the wild-bear’s skin 
Ye slumber’d on while life was in ? — 

A woman now, or babe, may come, 

And cast the covering from thy tomb. 

“Yet be not wrathful. Chief, nor blight 
Mine eyes or ears with sound or sight! 

I come not, with unhallow’d tread. 

To wake the slumbers of the dead. 

Or lay thy giant relics bare ; 

But what I seek thou well canst spare. 

Be it to my hand allow’d 

To shear a merk’s weight from thy shroud; 

Yet leave thee sheeted lead enough 
To shield thy bones from weather rough. 

“ See, I draw my magic knife — 

Never while thou wert in life 
Laid’st thou still for sloth or tear. 

When point and edge were glittering near ;; 

See, the cerements now I sever — 

Waken now, or sleep for ever I 

Thou wilt not wake ? the deed is done I — 

The prize I sought is fairly won. 


8o 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Thanks, Ribolt, thanks, — for this the sea 
Shall smooth its ruffled crest for thee, — 

And while afar its billows foam. 

Subside to peace near Ribolt’s tomb. 

Thanks, Ribolt, thanks — for this the might 
Of wild winds raging at their height, 

When to thy place of slumber nigh, 

Shall soften to a lullaby. 

She, the dame of doubt and dread, 

Norna of the Fitful-head, 

Mighty in her own despite — 

Miserable in her might ; 

In despair and frenzy great, — 

In her greatness desolate ; 

Wisest, wickedest who lives. 

Well can keep the word she gives.” 

While Norna chanted the first part of this rhyme, 
she completed the task, of laying bare a part of the 
leaden coffin of the ancient warrior, and severed 
from it, with much caution and apparent awe, a 
portion of the metal. She then reverentially threw 
back the sand upon the coffin ; and by the time she 
had finished her song, no trace remained that the 
secrets of the sepulchre had been violated. 

Mertoun remained gazing on her from behind 
the churchyard wall during the whole ceremony, 
not from any impression of veneration for her or 
her employment, but because he conceived that to 
interrupt a madwoman in her act of madness, was 
not the best way to obtain from her such intelli- 
gence as she might have to impart. Meanwhile he 
had full time to consider her figure, although her 
face was obscured by her dishevelled hair, and by 
the hood of her dark mantle, which permitted no 
more to be visible than a Druidess would probably 
have exhibited at the celebration of her mystical 


THE PIRATE. 


8i 


rites. Mertoun had often heard of Norna before ; 
nay, it is most probable that be might have seen 
her repeatedly, for she had been in the vicinity of 
Jarlshof more than once since his residence there. 
But the absurd stories which were in circulation 
respecting her, prevented his paying any attention 
to a person whom he regarded as either an impos- 
tor or a madwoman, or a compound of both. Yet, 
now that his attention was, by circumstances, invol- 
untarily fixed upon her person and deportment, he 
could not help acknowledging to himself that she 
was either a complete enthusiast, or rehearsed her 
part so admirably, that no Pythoness of ancient 
times could have excelled her. The dignity and 
solemnity of her gesture, — the sonorous, yet im- 
pressive tone of voice with which she addressed the 
departed spirit whose mortal relics she ventured to 
disturb, were such as failed not to make an impres- 
sion upon him, careless and indifferent as he gener- 
ally appeared to all that went on around him. But 
no sooner was her singular occupation terminated, 
than, entering the churchyard with some difficulty, 
by clambering over the disjointed ruins of the wall, 
he made Norna aware of his presence. Far from 
starting, or expressing the least surprise at his ap- 
pearance in a place so solitary, she said, in a tone 
that seemed to intimate that he had been expected, 
“ So, — you have sought me at last ? ” 

“And found you,” replied Mertoun, judging he 
would best introduce the enquiries he had to make, 
by assuming a tone which corresponded to her own. 

“ Yes ! ” she replied, “ found me you have, and 
in the place where all men must meet — amid the 
tabernacles of the dead.” 

“Here we must, indeed, meet at last,” replied 

VOL. II. — 6 


82 


THE PIRATE. 


Mertoun, glancing his eyes on the desolate scene 
around, where headstones, half covered in sand, 
and others, from which the same wind had stripped 
the soil on which they rested, covered with inscrip- 
tions, and sculptured with the emblems of mor- 
tality, were the most conspicuous objects, — “ here, 
as in the house of death, all men must meet at 
length ; and happy those that come soonest to the 
quiet haven.” 

“He that dares desire this haven,” said Norna, 
“ must have steered a steady course in the voyage 
of life. I dare not hope for such quiet harbour. 
Barest thou expect it ? or has the course thou hast 
kept deserved it ? ” 

“ It matters not to my present purpose,” replied 
Mertoun ; “ I have to ask you what tidings you 
kftow of my son Mordaunt Mertoun ? ” 

“ A father,” replied the sibyl, “ asks of a stranger 
what tidings she has of his son ! How should I 
know aught of him ? the cormorant says not to the 
mallard, where is my brood?” 

“Lay aside this useless affectation of mystery,” 
said Mertoun ; “ with the vulgar and ignorant it 
has its effect, but upon me it is thrown away. The 
people of Jarlshof have told me that you do know, 
or may know, something of Mordaunt Mertoun, 
who has not returned home after the festival of 
Saint John’s, held in the house of your relative, 
Magnus Troil. Give me such information, if in- 
deed ye have it to give ; and it shall be recom- 
pensed, if the means of recompense are in my 
power.” 

“ The wide round of earth,” replied Norna, “ holds 
nothing that I would call a recompense for the 
slightest word that I throw away upon a living ear 


THE PIRATE. 


83 


But for thy son, if thou wouldst see him in life, 
repair to the approaching Fair of Kirkwall, in 
Orkney.” 

“ And wherefore thither ? ” said Mertoun ; “ I 
know he had no purpose in that direction.” 

“We drive on the stream of fate ” answered 
Norna, “ without oar or rudder. You had no pur- 
pose this morning of visiting the Kirk of Saint 
Ringan, yet you are here ; — you had no purpose 
but a minute hence of being at Kirkwall, and yet 
you will go thither.” 

“Not unless the cause is more distinctly ex- 
plained to me. I am no believer, dame, in those 
who assert your supernatural powers.” 

You shall believe in them ere we part,” said 
Norna. “ As yet you know but little of me, nor shall 
you know more. But I know enough of you, and 
could convince you with one word that I do so.” 

“ Convince me, then,” said Mertoun ; “ for un- 
less I am so convinced, there is little chance of my 
following your counsel.” 

“ Mark, then,” said Norna, “what I have to say 
on your son’s score, else what I shall say to you 
on your own will banish every other thought from 
your memory. You shall go to the approaching 
Fair at Kirkwall; and, on the fifth day of the Fair, 
you shall walk, at the hour of noon, in the outer 
aisle of the Cathedral of Saint Magnus, and there 
you shall meet a person who will give you tidings 
of your son.” 

“ You must speak more distinctly, dame,” re- 
turned Mertoun, scornfully, “if you hope that I 
should follow your counsel. I have been fooled in 
my time by women, but never so grossly as you 
seem willing to gull me.” 


84 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Hearken, then ! ” said the old woman. “ The 
word which I speak shall touch the nearest secret 
of thy life, and thrill thee through nerve and bone.” 

So saying, she whispered a word into Mertoun’s 
ear, the eftect of which seemed almost magical. He 
remained fixed and motionless with surprise, as, 
waving her arm slowly aloft, with an air of supe- 
riority and triumph, Norna glided from him, turned 
round a corner of the ruins, and was soon out of 
sight. 

Mertoun offered not to follow, or to trace her. 
“We fly from our fate in vain !” he said, as he be- 
gan to recover himself ; and turning, he left behind 
him the desolate ruins with their cemetery. As he 
looked hack from the very last point at which the 
church was visible, he saw the figure of Norna, 
muffled in her mantle, standing on the very summit 
of the ruined tower, and stretching out in the sea- 
breeze something which resembled a white pennon, 
or flag. A feeling of horror, similar to that excited 
by her last words, again thrilled through his bosom, 
and he hastened onwards with unwonted speed, 
until he had left the church of Saint Ninian, with its 
bay of sand, far behind him. 

Upon his arrival at Jarlshof, the alteration in his 
countenance was so great, that Swertha conjectured 
he was about to fall into one of those fits of deep 
melancholy which she termed his dark hour. 

“ And what better could be expected,” thought 
Swertha, “ when he must needs go visit Norna of 
the Fitful-head, when she was in the haunted Kirk 
of Saint Ringan’s ? ” 

But without testifying any other symptoms of 
an alienated mind, than that of deep and sullen 
dejection, her master acquainted her with his inten- 


THE PIRATE. 


tion to go to the Fair of Kirkwall, — a thing so 
contrary to his usual habits, that the housekeeper 
wellnigh refused to credit her ears. Shortly after, 
he heard, with apparent indifference, the accounts 
returned by the different persons who had been sent 
out in quest of Mordaunt, by sea and land, who all 
of them returned without any tidings. The equa- 
nimity with which Mertouii heard the report of 
their bad success, convinced Swertha still more 
firmly, that, in his interview with Norna, that issue 
had been predicted to him by the sibyl whom he 
had consulted. 

The township were yet more surprised, when 
their tacksman, Mr. Mertoun, as if on some sud- 
den resolution, made preparations to visit Kirk- 
wall during the Fair, although he had hitherto 
avoided sedulously all such places of public resort. 
Swertha puzzled herself a good deal, without being 
able to penetrate this mystery ; and vexed herself 
still more concerning the fate of her young master. 
But her concern was much softened by the deposit 
of a sum of money, seeming, however moderate in 
itself, a treasure in her eyes, which her master put 
into her hands, acquainting her at the same time, 
that he had taken his passage for Kirkwall, in a 
small bark belonging to the proprietor of the island 
of Mousa. 


CHAPTEK VI. 


Nae langer she wept, — her tears were a’ spent,— 

Despair it was come, and she thought it content ; 

She thought it content, but her cheek it grew pale, 

And she droop’d, like a lily broke down by the hail. 

Continuation of Auld Robin Gray?- (d) 

The condition of Minna much resembled that of 
the village heroine in Lady Ann Lindsay’s beautiful 
ballad. Her natural firmness of mind prevented 
her from sinking under the pressure of the horrible 
secret, which haunted her while awake, and was yet 
more tormenting during her broken and hurried 
slumbers. There is no grief so dreadful as that 
which we dare not communicate, and in which we 
can neither ask nor desire sympathy ; and when to 
this is added the burden of a guilty mystery to an 
innocent bosom, there is little wonder that Minna’s 
health should have sunk under the burden. 

To the friends around, her habits and manners, 
nay, her temper, seemed altered to such an extra- 
ordinary degree, that it is no wonder that some 
should have ascribed the change to witchcraft, and 
some to incipient madness. She became unable to 
bear the solitude in which she formerly delighted 
to spend her time ; yet when she hurried into 

^ It is worth while saying, that this motto, and the ascription of 
the beautiful ballad from which it is taken to the Right Honour- 
able Lady Ann Lindsay, occasioned the ingenious authoress’s ac- 
knowledgment of the ballad, of which the Editor, by her permission, 
published a small impression, inscribed to the Bannatyne Club. 


THE PIRATE. 


87 


society, it was without either joining in, or attending 
to, what passed. Generally she appeared wrapped 
in sad, and even . sullen abstraction, until her atten- 
tion was suddenly roused by some casual mention 
of the name of Cleveland, or of Mordaunt Mertoun, 
at which she started, with the horror of one who 
sees the lighted match applied to a charged mine, 
and expects to be instantly involved in the effects 
of the explosion. And when she observed that the 
discovery was not yet made, it was so far from being 
a consolation, that she almost wished the worst were 
known, rather than endure the continued agonies of 
suspense. 

Her conduct towards her sister was so variable, 
yet uniformly so painful to the kind-hearted Brenda, 
that it seemed to all around, one of the strongest 
features of her malady. Sometimes Minna was 
impelled to seek her sister’s company, as if by the 
consciousness that they were common sufferers 'by 
a misfortune of which she herself alone could grasp 
^ the extent ; and then suddenly the feeling of the 
injury which Brenda had received through the sup- 
posed agency of Cleveland, made her unable to bear 
her presence, and still less to endure the conso- 
lation which her sister, mistaking the nature of her 
malady, vainly endeavoured to administer. Fre- 
quently, also, did it happen, that, while Brenda was 
imploring her sister to take comfort, she incautiously 
touched upon some subject which thrilled to the very 
centre of her soul ; so that, unable to conceal her agony, 
Minna would rush hastily from the apartment. All 
these different moods, though they too much re- 
sembled, to one who knew not their real source, the 
caprices of unkind estrangement, Brenda endured 
with such prevailing and unruffled gentleness of 


THE PIRATE. 


disposition, that Minna was frequently moved to 
shed floods of tears upon her neck ; and, perhaps, the 
moments in which she did so, though embittered by 
the recollection that her fatal secret concerned the 
destruction of Brenda’s happiness as well as her 
own, were still, softened as they were by sisterly 
affection, the most endurable moments of this most 
miserable period of her life. 

The effects of the alternations of moping melan- 
choly, fearful agitation, and bursts of nervous feel- 
ing, were soon visible on the poor young woman’s 
face and person. She became pale and emaciated ; 
her eye lost the steady quiet look of happiness and 
innocence, and was alternately dim and wild, as she 
was acted upon by a general feeling of her own dis- 
tressful condition, or by some quicker and more poig- 
nant sense of agony. Her very features seemed to 
change, and become sharp and eager, and her voice, 
which, in its ordinary tones, was low and placid, 
now sometimes sunk in indistinct mutterings, and 
sometimes was raised beyond the natural key, in 
hasty and abrupt exclamations. When in company 
with others, she was sullenly silent, and, when she 
ventured into solitude, was observed (for it was 
now thought very proper to watch her on such oc- 
casions) to speak much to herself. 

The pharmacy of the islands was in vain resorted 
to by Minna’s anxious father. Sages of both sexes, 
who knew the virtues of every herb which drinks 
the dew, and augmented those virtues by words of 
might, used while they prepared and applied the 
medicines, were attended with no benefit ; and Mag- 
nus, in the utmost anxiety, was at last induced to 
have recourse to the advice of his kinswoman, Norna 
of the Fitful-head, although, owing to circumstances 


THE PIRATE. 


89 


noticed in the course of the story, there was at this 
time some estrangement between them. His first 
application was in vain. Norna was then at her 
usual place of residence, upon the sea-coast, near the 
headland from which she usually took her designa- 
tion ; but, although Eric Scambester himself brought 
the message, she refused positively to see him, or to 
return any answer. 

Magnus was angry at the slight put upon his 
messenger and message, but his anxiety on Minna’s 
account, as well as the respect which he had for 
Noma’s real misfortunes and imputed wisdom and 
power, prevented him from indulging, on the present 
occasion, his usual irritability of disposition. On the 
contrary, he determined to make an application to 
his kinswoman in his own person. He kept his 
purpose, however, to himself, and only desired his 
daughters to be in readiness to attend him upon a 
visit to a relation whom he had not seen for some 
time, and directed them, at the same time, to carry 
some provisions along with them, as the journey 
was distant, and they might perhaps find their 
friend unprovided. 

Unaccustomed to ask explanations of his pleas- 
ure, and hoping that exercise and the amusement 
of such an excursion might be of service to her sis- 
ter, Brenda, upon whom all household and family 
charges now devolved, caused the necessary prepara- 
tions to be made for the expedition ; and, on the 
next morning, they were engaged in tracing the long 
and tedious course of beach and of moorland, which, 
only varied by occasional patches of oats and barley, 
where a little ground had been selected for cultiva- 
tion, divided Burgh -Westra from the north-western 
extremity of the Mainland, (as the principal island 


90 


THE PIRATE. 


is called,) which terminates in the cape called Fitful- 
head, as the south-western point ends in the cape of 
Sumburgh. 

On they went, through wild and over wold, the 
Udaller bestriding a strong, square-made, well-bar- 
relled palfrey, of Norwegian breed, somewhat taller, 
and yet as stout, as the ordinary ponies of the coun- 
try ; while Minna and Brenda, famed, amongst other 
accomplishments, for their horsemanship, rode two 
of those hardy animals, which, bred and reared with 
more pains than is usually bestowed, showed, both 
by the neatness of their form and their activity, 
that the race, so much and so carelessly neglected, 
is capable of being improved into beauty without 
losing any thing of its spirit or vigour. They were 
attended by two servants on horseback, and two on 
foot, secure that the last circumstance would be no 
delay to their journey, because a great part of the 
way was so rugged, or so marshy, that the horses 
could only move at a foot pace ; and that, whenever 
they met with any considerable tract of hard and 
even ground, they had only to borrow from the 
nearest herd of ponies the use of a couple for the 
accommodation of these pedestrians. 

The journey was a melancholy one, and little con- 
versation passed, except when the Udaller, pressed 
by impatience and vexation, urged his pony to a 
quick pace, and again, recollecting Minna’s weak 
state of health, slackened to a walk, and reiterated 
enquiries how she felt herself, and whether the fa- 
tigue was not too much for her. At noon the party 
halted, and partook of some refreshment, for which 
they had made ample provision, beside a pleasant 
spring, the pureness of whose waters, however, did 
not suit the Udaller’s palate, • until qualified by a 


THE PIRATE. 


91 


liberal addition of right ISTantz. After he had a 
second, yea and a third time, filled a large silver 
travelling-cup, embossed with a German Cupid 
smoking a pipe, and a German Bacchus emptying 
his flask down the throat of a bear, he began to be- 
come more talkative than vexation had permitted 
him to be during the early part of their journey, 
and thus addressed his daughters : — 

Well, children, we are within a league or two 
of Norna*s dwelling, and we shall soon see how the 
old spell-mutterer will receive us.” 

Minna interrupted her father with a faint excla- 
mation, while Brenda, surprised to a great degree, 
exclaimed, “ Is it then to Norna that we are to make 
this visit ? — Heaven forbid ! ” 

“ And wherefore should Heaven forbid ? ” said the 
Udaller, knitting his brows ; “ wherefore, I would 
gladly know, should Heaven forbid me to visit my 
kinswoman, whose skill may be of use to your sis- 
ter, if any woman in Zetland, or man either, can be 
of service to her ? — You are a fool, Brenda, — your 
sister has more sense. — Cheer up, Minna ! — thou 
wert ever wont to like her songs and stories, and 
used to hang about her neck, when little Brenda 
cried and ran from her like a Spanish merchantman 
from a Dutch caper.” ^ 

“ I wish she may not frighten me as much to-day, 
father,” replied Brenda, desirous of indulging Minna 
in her taciturnity, and at the same time to amuse 
her father by sustaining the conversation ; “ I have 
heard so much of her dwelling, that I am rather 
alarmed at the thought of going there uninvited.” 

“ Thou art a fool,” said Magnus, “ to think that a 

' A light-armed vessel of the seveuteenth century, adapted foi 
privateering, and much used by the Dutch. 


92 


THE PIRATE. 


visit from her kinsfolks can ever come amiss to a 
kind, hearty, Hialtland heart, like my cousin Noma’s. 

— And, now I think on’t, I will be sworn that is 
the reason why she would not receive Eric Scam- 
bester ! — It is many a long day since I have seen 
her chimney smoke, and I have never carried you 
thither — She hath indeed some right to call me 
unkind. But I will tell her the truth — and that 
is, that though such be the fashion, I do not think 
it is fair or honest to eat up the substance of lone 
women-folks, as we do that of our brother Udallers, 
when we roll about from house to house in the 
winter season, until we gather like a snowball, and 
eat up all wherever we come.” 

“There is no fear of our putting Norna to any 
distress just now,” replied Brenda, “for I have ample 
provision of every thing that we can possibly need 

— fish, and bacon, and salted mutton, and dried 
geese — more than we could eat in a week, besides 
enough of liquor for you, father.” 

“ Right, right, my girl ! ” said the Udaller ; “ a 
well-found ship makes a merry voyage — so we 
shall only want the kindness of Norna’s roof, and a 
little bedding for you ; for, as to myself, my sea- 
cloak, and honest dry boards of Norway deal, suit 
me better than your eider-down cushions and mat- 
tresses. So that Norna will have the pleasure of 
seeing us without having a stiver’s worth of trouble.” 

“ I wish she may think it a pleasure, sir,” replied 
Brenda. 

“ Why, what does the girl mean, in the name of 
the Martyr ? ” replied Magnus Troil ; “ dost thou 
think my kinswoman is a heathen, who will not re- 
joice to see her own flesh and blood ? — I would I 
were as sure of a good year’s fishing ! — No, no ! I 


THE PIRATE. 


93 


only fear we may find her from home at present, for 
she is often a wanderer, and all with thinking over 
much on what can never be helped.” 

Minna sighed deeply as her father spoke, and the 
Udaller went on : — 

Dost thou sigh at that, my girl ? — why, ’tis the 
fault of half the world — let it never be thine own, 
Minna.” 

Another suppressed sigh intimated that the cau- 
tion came too late. 

“ I believe you are afraid of my cousin as well as 
Brenda is,” said the Udaller, gazing on her pale 
countenance; ‘‘if so, speak the word, and we will 
return back again as if we had. the wind on our 
quarter, and were running fifteen knots by the line.” 

“ Do, for Heaven’s sake, sister, let us return ! ” 
said Brenda, imploringly ; “ you know — you re- 
member — you must be well aware that Norna can 
do nought to help you.” 

“ It is but too true,” said Minna, in a subdued 
voice ; “ but I know not — she may answer a ques- 
tion — a question that only the miserable dare ask 
of the miserable.” 

“ Nay, my kinswoman is no miser,” answered the 
Udaller, who only heard the beginning of the word; 
“ a good income she has, both in Orkney and here, 
and many a fair lispund of butter is paid to her. 
But the poor have the best share of it, and shame 
fall the Zetlander who begrudges them ; the rest she 
spends, I wot not how, in her journeys through the 
islands. But you will laugh to see her house, and 
Nick Strumpfer, whom she calls Pacolet — many 
folks think Nick is the devil; but he is flesh and 
blood, like any of us — his father lived in Grsemsay 
— I shall be glad to see Nick again.” 


94 


THE PIRATE. 


While the Udaller thus ran on, Brenda, who, in 
recompense for a less portion of imagination than 
her sister, was gifted with sound common sense, was 
debating with herself the probable effect of this visit 
on her sister’s health. She came finally to the reso- 
lution of speaking with her father aside, upon the 
first occasion which their journey should afford. To 
him she determined to communicate the whole par- 
ticulars of their nocturnal interview with Norna, — 
to which, among other agitating causes, she attri- 
buted the depression of Minna’s spirits, — and then 
make himself the judge whether he ought to persist 
in his visit to a person so singular, and expose his 
daughter to all the shock which her nerves might 
possibly receive from the interview. 

Just as she had arrived at this conclusion, her 
father, dashing the crumbs from his laced waistcoat 
with one hand, and receiving with the other a fourth 
cup of brandy and water, drank devoutly to the suc- 
cess of their voyage, and ordered all to be in readi- 
ness to set forward. Whilst they were saddling 
their ponies, Brenda, with some difficulty, contrived 
to make her father understand she wished to speak 
with him in private — no small surprise to the 
honest Udaller, who, though secret as the grave in 
the very few things where he considered secrecy as 
of importance, was so far from practising mystery in 
general, that his most important affairs were often 
discussed by him openly in presence of his whole 
family, servants included. 

But far greater was his astonishment, when, re- 
maining purposely with his daughter Brenda, a little 
in the wake, as he termed it, of the other riders, he 
heard the whole account of Norna’s visit to Burgh- 
Westra, and of the communication with which she 


THE PIRATE. 


95 


had then astounded his daughters. For a long time 
he could utter nothing but interjections, and ended 
with a thousand curses on his kinswoman’s folly in 
telling his daughters such a history of horror. 

“ I have often heard,” said the Udaller, “ that she 
was quite mad, with all her wisdom, and all her 
knowledge of the seasons ; and, by the bones of my 
namesake, the Martyr, I begin now to believe it 
most assuredly ! I know no more how to steer than 
if I had lost my compass. Had I known this before 
we set out, I think I had remained at home ; but 
now that we have come so far, and that Norna ex- 
pects us ” • 

“Expects us, father!” said Brenda; “how can 
that be possible ? ” 

“ Why, that I know not — but she that can tell 
how the wind is to blow, can tell which way we are 
designing to ride. She must not be provoked ; — 
perhaps she has done my family this ill for the 
words I had with her about that lad Mordaunt Mer- 
toun, and if so, she can undo it again ; — and so she 
shall, or I will know the cause wherefore. But I 
will try fair words first.” 

Finding it thus settled that they were to go for- 
ward, Brenda endeavoured next to learn from her 
father whether Norna’s tale was founded in reality. 
He shook his head, groaned bitterly, and, in a few 
words, acknowledged that the whole, so far as con- 
cerned her intrigue with a stranger, and her father’s 
death, of which she became the accidental and most 
innocent cause, was a matter of sad and indisputable 
truth. “ For her infant,” he said, “ he could never, 
by any means, learn what became of it.” 

“ Her infant ! ” exclaimed Brenda ; “ she spoke 
not a word of her infant I” 


96 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Then I wish my tongue had been blistered,’ 
said the Udaller, “ when I told yon of it ! — I see 
that, young and old, a man has no better chance of 
keeping a secret from you women, than an eel to 
keep himself in his hold when he is sniggled with 
a loop of horse-hair — sooner or later the fisher 
teazes him out of his hole, when he has once the 
noose round his neck.” 

“But the infant, my father,” said Brenda, still 
insisting on the particulars of this extraordinary 
story, “ what became of it ? ” 

“Carried off, I fancy, by the blackguard Vaughan,” 
answered the Udaller, with a gruff accent, which 
plainly betokened how weary he was of the subject. 

“By Vaughan?” said Brenda, “the lover of poor 
Norna, doubtless! — what sort of man was he, 
father ? ” 

“ Why, much like other men, I fancy,” answered 
the Udaller ; “ I never saw him in my life. — He 
kept company with the Scottish families at Kirk- 
wall; and I with the good old Horse folk — Ah I if 
Horna had dwelt always amongst her own kin, and 
not kept company with her Scottish acquaintance, 
she would have known nothing of Vaughan, and 
things might have been otherwise — But then I 
should have known nothing of your blessed mother, 
Brenda — and that,” he said, his large blue eyes 
shining with a tear, “ would have saved me a short 
joy and a long sorrow.” 

“ Horna could but ill have supplied my mother’s 
place to you, father, as a companion and a friend — 
that is, judging from all I have heard,” said Brenda, 
with some hesitation. But Magnus, softened by 
recollections of his beloved wife, answered her w^th 
more indulgence than she expected. 


THE PIRATE. 


97 


“I would have been content,” he said, “to have 
wedded Norna at that time. It would have been 
the soldering of an old quarrel — the healing of an 
old sore. All our blood relations wished it, and, 
situated as I was, especially not having seen your 
blessed mother, I had little will to oppose their 
counsels. You must not judge of Norna or of me 
by such an appearance as we now present to you — 
She was young and beautiful, and I gamesome as 
a Highland buck, and little caring what haven I 
made for, having, as I thought, more than one under 
my lee. But Norna preferred this man Vaughan, 
and, as I told you before, it was, perhaps, the best 
kindness she could have done to me.” 

“ Ah, poor kinswoman ! ” said Brenda. “ But 
believe you, father, in the high powers which she 
claims — in the mysterious vision of the dwarf — in 
the ” 

She was interrupted in these questions by Mag- 
nus, to whom they were obviously displeasing. 

“I believe, Brenda,” he said, “according to the 
belief of my forefathers — I pretend not to be a 
wiser man than they were in their time, — and they 
all believed that, in cases of great worldly distress. 
Providence opened the eyes of the mind, and af- 
forded the sufferers a vision of futurity. It was 
but a trimming of the boat, with reverence,” — here 
he touched his hat reverentially ; “ and, after all the 
shifting of ballast, poor Norna is as heavily loaded 
in the bows as ever was an Orkney man’s yawl at the 
dog-fishing — she has more than affliction enough on 
board to balance whatever gifts she may have had 
in the midst of her calamity. They are as painful 
to her, poor soul, as a crown of thorns would be to 
her brows, though it were the badge of the em- 

TOL. II. — 7 


98 


THE PIRATE. 


pire of Denmark. And do not you, Brenda, seek to 
be wiser than your fathers. Your sister Minna, be- 
fore she was so ill, had as much reverence for what- 
ever was produced in Norse, as if it had been in the 
Pope’s bull, which is all written in pure Latin.” 

“ Poor Norna ! ” repeated Brenda ; “ and her child 
— was it never recovered ? ” 

“What do I know of her child,” said the Udaller, 
more gruffly than before, “except that she was 
very ill, both before and after the birth, though we 
kept her as merry as we could with pipe and harp, 
and so forth ; — the child had come before its time 
into this bustling world, so it is likely it has been 
long dead. — But you know nothing of all these 
matters, Brenda ; so get along for a foolish girl, and 
ask no more questions about what it does not be- 
come you to enquire into.” 

So saying, the Udaller gave his sturdy little pal- 
frey the spur, and cantering forward over rough and 
smooth, while the pony’s accuracy and firmness of 
step put all difficulties of the path at secure defiance, 
he placed himself soon by the side of the melancholy 
Minna, and permitted her sister to have no farther 
share in his conversation than as it was addressed 
to them jointly. She could but comfort herself 
with the hope, that, as Minna’s disease appeared to 
have its seat in the imagination, the remedies recom- 
mended by Norna might have some chance of being 
effectual, since, in all probability, they would be 
addressed to the same faculty. 

Their way had hitherto held chiefly over moss 
and moor, varied occasionally by the necessity of 
making a circuit around the heads of those long 
lagoons, called voes, which run up into and indent 
the country in such a manner, that, though the 


THE PIRATE. 


99 


Mainland of Zetland may be thirty miles or more 
in length, there is, perhaps, no part of it which is 
more than three miles distant from the salt water. 
But they had now approached the north-western 
extremity of the isle, and travelled along the top 
of an immense ridge of rocks, which had for ages 
withstood the rage of the Northern Ocean, and of 
all the winds by which it is buffeted. 

At length exclaimed Magnus to his daughters, 
“There is Noma’s dwelling! — Look up, Minna, 
my love ; for if this does not make you laugh, noth- 
ing will. — Saw you ever any thing but an osprey 
that would have made such a nest for herself as 
that is ? — By my namesake’s bones, there is not 
the like of it that living thing ever dwelt in, (having 
no wings and the use of reason,) unless it chanced 
to be the Frawa-Stack off Papa, where the King’s 
daughter of Norway was shut up to keep her from 
her lovers — and all to little purpose, if the tale be 
true; ^ for, maidens, T would have you to wot that 
it is hard to keep flax from the lowe.” ^ 

1 The Frawa-Stack or Maiden-Rock, an inaccessible cliff, di- 
vided by a narrow gulf from the Island of Papa, has on the sum- 
mit some ruins, concerning which there is a legend similar to that 
of Danae. 

^ Lowe, flame. 


CHAPTER VII. 


Thrice from the cavern’s darksome womb 
Her groaning voice arose ; 

And come, my daughter, fearless come. 

And fearless tell thy woes ! 

Meikle. 

The dwelling of Norna, though none but a na- 
tive of Zetland, familiar, during his whole life, with 
every variety of rock-scenery, could have seen any 
thing ludicrous in this situation, was not unaptly 
compared by Magnus Troil to the eyry of the os- 
prey, or sea-eagle. It was very small, and had been 
fabricated out of one of those dens which are called 
Burghs and Picts-houses in Zetland, and Duns on 
the mainland of Scotland and the Hebrides, and 
which seem to be the first effort at architecture — 
the connecting link betwixt a fox’s hole in a cairn of 
loose stones, and an attempt to construct a human 
habitation out of the same materials, without the 
use of lime or cement of any kind, — without any 
timber, so far as can be seen from their remains, — 
without any knowledge of the arch or of the stair. 
Such as they are, however, the numerous remains 
of these dwellings — for there is one found on every 
headland, islet, or point of vantage, which could 
afford the inhabitants additional means of defence — 
tend to prove that the remote people by whom these 
Burghs were constructed, were a numerous race, 
and that the islands had then a much greater 


THE PIRATE. 


101 


population, than, from other circumstances, we might 
have been led to anticipate. 

The Burgh of which we at present speak had 
been altered and repaired at a later period, prob- 
ably by some petty despot, or sea-rover, who, tempted 
by the security of the situation, which occupied 
the whole of a projecting point of rock, and was 
divided from the mainland by a rent or chasm of 
some depth, had built some additions to it in the 
rudest style of Gothic defensive architecture ; — had 
plastered the inside with lime and clay, and broken 
out windows for the admission of light and air; 
and, finally, by roofing it over, and dividing it into 
stories, by means of beams of wreck-wood, had 
converted the whole into a tower, resembling a pyra- 
midical dovec )t, formed by a double wall, still con- 
taining within its thickness that set of circular 
galleries, or concentric rings, which is proper to all 
the forts of this primitive construction, and which 
seem to have constituted the only shelter which 
they were originally qualified to afford to their shi- 
vering inhabitants.^ 

This singular habitation, built out of the loose 
stones which lay scattered around, and exposed for 
ages to the vicissitudes of the elements, was as grey, 
weatherbeaten, and wasted, as the rock on which 
it was founded, and from which it could not easily 
be distinguished, so completely did it resemble in 
colour, and so little did it differ in regularity of 
shape, from a pinnacle or fragment of the cliff. 

Minna’s habitual indifference to all that of late 
had passed around her, was for a moment suspended 
by the sight of an abode, which, at another and 
happier period of her life, would have attracted at 
1 Note III. — The Pictish Burgh. 


f02 


THE PIRATE. 


once her curiosity and her wonder. Even now she 
seemed to feel interest as she gazed upon this sin- 
gular retreat, and recollected it was that of certain 
misery and probable insanity, connected, as its in- 
habitant asserted, and Minna’s faith admitted, with 
power over the elements, and the capacity of inter- 
course with the invisible world. 

** Our kinswoman,” she muttered, has chosen 
her dwelling well, with no more of earth than a 
sea-fowl might rest upon, and all around sightless 
tempests and raging waves. Despair and magical 
power could not have a fitter residence.” 

Brenda, on the other hand, shuddered when she 
looked on the dwelling to which they were advan- 
cing, by a difficult, dangerous, and precarious path, 
which sometimes, to her great terror, approached 
to the verge of the precipice ; so that, Zetlander as 
she was, and confident as she had reason to be, in 
the steadiness and sagacity of- the sure-footed pony, 
she could scarce suppress an inclination to giddi- 
ness, especially at one point, when, being foremost 
of the party, and turning a sharp angle of the rock, 
her feet, as they projected from the side of the pony, 
hung for an instant sheer over the ledge of the pre- 
cipice, so that there was nothing save empty space 
betwixt the sole of her shoe and the white foam of 
the vexed ocean, which dashed, howled, and foamed, 
five hundred feet below. What would have driven 
a maiden of another country into delirium, gave 
her but a momentary uneasiness, which was in- 
stantly lost in the hope that the impression which 
the scene appeared to make on her sister’s imagina- 
tion might be favourable to her cure. 

She could not help looking back to see how Minna 
should pass the point of peril, which she herself had 














. v.sN/A’I 

I • > - • • ‘ • vV*,.' ■■«.♦' * ^ * J 






V 


Rfl'i •/. . .■ Y'*;;/ •/ ; ' ••■ 

S' *' .. ' .1 'aW", ■' ■ . ' 

* • '• . ,' • “ J-. . ' « ’ . • 

• <\r*: : \>'*U ■ ' ' V 


i, VM 


>\±v 


;V: 


■Vv:.'*: 


■ :; V 5 i' 


%>f I * '.' ‘'‘ • ,' ri ' • ' « • . 

intv'-'- • ’ m^'-U ’ ■ ♦ . ■ ' i' ' 

‘ ii ' > ■^. . •«. 


<> 


H 


l<.-» ■ -,- > 




'vo' ^ ^^* 5 lr 35 l!«' 


^itT 




v’‘ 




i 


' ^ - >■ 

' • , *1 ' * 


'k ’ ,' 


t* 


kvr 


MiC. 






\ I 




^ >/ 


. I 


^ ■>. 




.' ; -'•. ■: ?.? '•• ■. "'• '■■ 

!>v- • s*' -^.•■‘ ■. .'■ ' ' ' I' .' 

' '"’w- *— ■ • ' ■■ ■ 

. '■ ' ■.'. •■■<.''■ V; -i' ;■■ ' '■ 




^ 4 « 


‘1 


t i 4 

t‘- 

Lr:.-.' - ' 

< *. V. • 


' , :fe#' 


• ' A 


* *X * 

'■ .' ■ ’»/'■, 




■' i. ■ 


.• s 


) . 


1 


. 1 ^ 




xvr"'- -o 

.■> ' - ■ A‘ , 

V . '.;• ' -i "':V' ' 


iii'.v 7 '' .; . r^' • •.' 


A/ ' '. ' ^' ) 


■ .‘ .•;Vn'.i ■ - ■■ 


' !■' 


I *i • • i i • 


I ' 

M 




.1 I ■ 

• f ■ 


i 

f ’ r 


■' '■ r i’ •• ‘ , • • 

• ■ > ■\V:'’- * •■■' 

; J ' VV v<,V ■•^•v 4u' ■ 

.v-'i. .A.,; 





■ V '• V- . ^V’^V 

V'i:v.v : -.■'•7'’'iV'‘>. ’/..j . • v'il' 






'ir* 


Kuft •'• 1 ./ . c*', /*,'•>- 



• v " '.U’ . . • 

* • ^ ' • I • M ' * . ' . ^ t • f 

• I J i' .'iM’ \A* a' '* • — 


L>‘ y ' r-v., , ..• 

.' ', > 1 • . ' 


y .-v 


& if, ,M >:• -'v'^, 

mIBQV''. ' '•■'*' * ’■ . '.,' '' '■ '* ‘ ^ 

k V « . ft * * * . I 


V 




a «'V, ’ 


0 


i , 




THE PIRATE. 


103 


just rounded ; and could hear the strong voice of 
the Udaller, though to him such rough paths were 
familiar as the smooth sea-beach, call, in a tone of 
some anxiety, Take heed, jarto,” ^ as Minna, with 
an eager look, dropped her bridle, and stretched for- 
ward her arms, and even her body, over the precipice, 
in the attitude of the wild swan, when balancing 
itself, and spreading its broad pinions, it pre- 
pares to launch from the cliff upon the bosom of the 
winds. Brenda felt, at that instant, a pang of un- 
utterable terror, which left a strong impression on 
her nerves, even when relieved, as it instantly was, 
by her sister recovering herself and sitting upright 
on her saddle, the opportunity and temptation (if 
she felt it) passing away, as the quiet steady animal 
which supported her rounded the projecting angle, 
and turned its patient and firm step from the verge 
of the precipice. 

They now attained a more level and open space 
of ground, being the flat top of an isthmus of pro- 
jecting rock, narrowing again towards a point where 
it was terminated by the chasm which separated the 
small peak, or stack, occupied by Norna’s habitation, 
from the main ridge of cliff and precipice. This 
natural fosse, which seemed to have been the work 
of some convulsion of nature, was deep, dark, and ir- 
regular, narrower towards the bottom, which could 
not be distinctly seen, and widest at top, having the 
appearance as if that part of the cliff occupied by 
the building had been half rent away from the isth- 
mus which it terminated, — an idea favoured by the 
angle at which it seemed to recede from the land, 
and lean towards the sea, with the building which 
crowned it. 


Jarto, my dear. 


164 


THE PIllATE. 


This angle of projection was so considerable, that 
it required recollection to dispel the idea that the 
rock, so much removed from the perpendicular, was 
about to precipitate itself seaward, with its old 
tower: and a timorous person would have been 
afraid to put foot upon it, lest an addition of weight, 
so inconsiderable as that of the human body, should 
hasten a catastrophe which seemed at every instant 
impending. 

Without troubling himself about such fantasies, 
the Udaller rode towards the tower, and there dis- 
mounting along with his daughters, gave the ponies 
in charge to one of their domestics, with directions 
to, disencumber them of their burdens, and turn them 
out for rest and refreshment upon the nearest heath. 
This done, they approached the gate, which seemed 
formerly to have been connected with the land by 
a rude drawbridge, some of the apparatus of which 
was still visible. But the rest had been long de- 
molished, and was replaced by a stationary foot- 
bridge, formed of barrel-staves covered with turf, 
very narrow and ledgeless, and supported by a sort 
of arch, constructed out of the jaw-bones of the 
whale. Along this “hrigg of dread ’’the Udaller 
stepped with his usual portly majesty of stride, which 
threatened its demolition and his own at the same 
time ; his daughters trode more lightly and more 
safely after him, and the whole party stood before 
the low and rugged portal of Norna’s habitation. 

“ If she should he abroad after all,” said Magnus, 
as he plied the black' oaken door with repeated 
blows ; — “ but if so, we will at least lie by a day 
for her return, and make Nick Strumpfer pay the 
demurrage in bland and brandy.” 

As he spoke, the door opened, and displayed, to 


THE HRATE. 


105 


the alarm of Brenda, and the surprise of Minna her- 
self, a square-made dwarf, about four feet five inches 
high, with a head of most portentous size, and fea- 
tures correspondent — namely, a huge mouth, a tre- 
mendous nose, with large black nostrils, which 
seemed to have been slit upwards, blubber lips of an 
unconscionable size, and huge wall-eyes, with which 
he leared, sneered, grinned, and goggled on the 
Udaller as an old acquaintance, without uttering a 
single word. The young women could hardly per- 
suade themselves that they did not see before their 
eyes the very demon Trolld, who made such a dis- 
tinguished figure in Norn a’ s legend. Their father 
went on addressing this uncouth apparition in terms 
of such condescending friendship as the better sort 
apply to their inferiors, when they wish, for any 
immediate purpose, to conciliate or coax them, — a 
tone, by the by, which generally contains, in its 
very familiarity, as much offence as the more direct 
assumption of distance and superiority. 

“Ha, Nick! honest Nick!” said the Udaller, 
“ here you are, lively and lovely as Saint Nicholas 
your namesake, when he is carved with an axe for 
the headpiece of a Dutch dogger. How dost thou 
do, Nick, or Pacolet, if you like that better ? Nich- 
olas, here are my two daughters, nearly as handsome 
as thyself thou seest.” 

Nick grinned, and did a clumsy obeisance by way 
of courtesy, but kept his broad misshapen person 
firmly placed in the doorway. 

“ Daughters,” continued the Udaller, who seemed 
to have his reasons for speaking this Cerberus fair, 
at least according to his own notions of propitiation, 
— “ this is Nick Strumpfer, maidens, whom his 
mistress calls Pacolet, being a light-limbed dwarf, 


io6 


THE PIRATE. 


as you see, like him that wont to fly about, like a 
Scourie, on his wooden hobbyhorse, in the old story- 
book of Valentine and Orson, that you, Minna, used 
to read whilst you were a child. I assure you he 
can keep his mistress’s counsel, and never told one 
of her secrets in his life — ha, ha, ha ! ” 

The ugly dwarf grinned ten times wider than be- 
fore, and showed the meaning of the Udaller’s jest, 
by opening his immense jaws, and throwing back 
his head, so as to discover, that, in the immense 
cavity of his mouth, there only remained the small 
shrivelled remnant of a tongue, capable, perhaps, of 
assisting him in swallowing his food, but unequal to 
the formation of articulate sounds. Whether this 
organ had been curtailed by cruelty, or injured by 
disease, it was impossible to guess ; but that the un- 
fortunate being had not been originally dumb, was 
evident from his retaining the sense of hearing. 
Having made this horrible exhibition, he repaid the 
Udaller’s mirth with a loud, horrid, and discordant 
laugh, which had something in it the more hideous 
that his mirth seemed to be excited by his own mi- 
sery. The sisters looked on each other in silence and 
fear, and even the Udaller appeared disconcerted. 

“And how now?” he proceeded, after a minute’s 
pause. “ When didst thou wash that throat of thine, 
that is about the width of the Pentland Frith, with 
a cup of brandy ? Ha, Nick ! I have that with me 
which is sound stuff, boy, ha ! ” 

The dwarf bent his beetle-brows, shook his mis- 
shapen head, and made a quick sharp indication, 
throwing his right hand up to his shoulder with the 
thumb pointed backwards. 

“ What ! my kinswoman,” said the Udaller, com- 
prehending the signal, “ will be angry ? Well, shalt 


THE PIRATE. 


107 


have a flask to carouse when she is from home, old 
acquaintance ; — lips and throats may swallow 
though they cannot speak.” 

Pacolet grinned a grim assent. 

“ And now,” said the Udaller, “ stand out of the 
way, Pacolet, and let me carry my daughters to 
see their kinswoman. By the bones of Saint Mag- 
nus, it shall be a good turn in thy way ! — nay, 
never shake thy head, man ; for if thy mistress be 
at home, see her we will.” 

The dwarf again intimated the impossibility of 
their being admitted, partly by signs, partly by 
mumbling some uncouth and most disagreeable 
sounds, and the Udaller’s mood began to arise. 

“ Tittle tattle, man ! ” said he ; “ trouble not me 
with thy gibberish, but stand out of the way, and 
the blame, if there be any, shall rest with me.” 

So saying, Magnus Troil laid his sturdy hand 
upon the collar of the recusant dwarfs jacket of 
blue wadmaal, and, with a strong, but not a violent 
grasp, removed him from the doorway, pushed him 
gently aside, and entered, followed by his two daugh- 
ters, whom a sense of apprehension, arising out of all 
which they saw and heard, kept very close to him. 
A crooked and dusky passage through which Magnus 
led the way, was dimly enlightened by a shot-hole, 
communicating with the interior of the building, 
and originally intended, doubtless, to command the en- 
trance by a hagbut or culverin. As they approached 
nearer, for they walked slowly and with hesitation, 
the light, imperfect as it was, was suddenly ob- 
scured ; and, on looking upward to discern the 
cause, Brenda was startled to observe the pale and 
obscurely-seen countenance of Norna gazing down- 
ward upon them, without speaking a word. There 


THE PIRATE. 


;o8 

was nothing extraordinary in this, as the mistress 
of the mansion might be naturally enough looking 
out to see what guests were thus suddenly and 
unceremoniously intruding themselves on her pres- 
ence. Still, however, the natural paleness of her 
features, exaggerated by the light in which they 
were at present exhibited, — the immovable stern- 
ness of her look, which showed neither kindness nor 
courtesy of civil reception, — her dead silence, and 
the singular appearance of every thing about her 
dwelling, augmented the dismay which Brenda had 
already conceived. Magnus Troil and Minna had 
walked slowly forward, without observing the ap« 
parition of their singular hostess. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The witch then raised her wither’d arm, 

And waved her wand on high, 

And, while she spoke the mutter’d charm. 

Dark lightning fill’d her eye. 

Meikle. 

“ This should be the stair,” said the Udaller, blun- 
dering in the dark against some steps of irregular as- 
cent — “ This should be the stair, unless my memory 
greatly fail me ; ay, and there she sits,” he added, 
pausing at a half-open door, “ with all her tackle 
about her' as usual, and as busy, doubtless, as the 
devil in a gale of wind.” 

As he made this irreverent comparison, he entered, 
followed by his daughters, the darkened apartment 
in which Norna was seated, amidst a confused col- 
lection of books of various languages, parchment 
scrolls, tablets and stones inscribed with the straight 
and angular characters of the Eunic alphabet, and 
similar articles, which the vulgar might have con- 
nected with the exercise of the forbidden arts. 
There were also lying in the chamber, or hung over 
the rude and ill-contrived chimney, an old shirt of 
mail, with the headpiece, battle-axe, and lance, which 
had once belonged to it; and on a shelf were dis- 
posed, in great order, several of those curious stone- 
axes, formed of green granite, which are often found 
in those islands, where they are called thunderbolts 
by the common people, who usually preserve them 


110 


THE PIRATE. 


as a charm of security against the effects of light- 
ning. There was, moreover, to be seen amid the 
strange collection, a stone sacrificial knife, used per- 
haps for immolating human victims, and one or two 
of the brazen implements called Celts, the purpose 
of which has troubled the repose of so many anti- 
quaries. A variety of other articles, some of which 
had neither name nor were capable of description, 
lay in confusion about the apartment ; and in one 
corner, on a quantity of withered sea-weed, reposed 
what seemed, at first view, to be a .large unshapely 
dog, but, when seen more closely, proved to be a 
tame seal, which it had been Noma’s amusement to 
domesticate. 

This uncouth favourite bristled up in its corner, 
upon the arrival of so many strangers, with an alert- 
ness similar to that which a terrestrial dog would 
have displayed on a similar occasion ; but Norna 
remained motionless, seated behind a table of rough 
granite, propped up by misshapen feet of the same 
material, which, besides the old book with which she 
seemed to be busied, sustained a cake of the coarse 
unleavened bread, three parts oatmeal, and one the 
sawdust of fir, which is used by the poor peasants 
of Norway, beside which stood a jar of water. 

Magnus Troil remained a minute in silence gaz- 
ing upon his kinswoman, while the singularity of 
her mansion inspired Brenda with much fear, and 
changed, though but for a moment, the melancholy 
and abstracted mood of Minna, into a feeling of in- 
terest not unmixed with awe. The silence was in- 
terrupted by the Udaller, who, unwilling on the one 
hand to give his kinswoman offence, and desirous on 
the other to show that he was not daunted by a re- 
ception so singular, opened the conversation thus : — 


THE PIRATE. 


iir 

"I give you good e’en, cousin Norna — my daugh- 
ters and I have come far to see you.” 

Norna raised her eyes from her volume, looked 
full at her visitors, then let them quietly sit down 
on the leaf with which she seemed to be engaged. 

“ Nay, cousin,” said -Magnus, “ take your own time 
— our business with you can wait your leisure. — 
See here, Minna, what a fair prospect here is of the 
cape, scarce a quarter of a mile off ! you may see the 
billows breaking on it topmast high. Our kins- 
woman has got a pretty seal, too — Here, sealchie, 
my man, whew, whew ! ” 

The seal took no further notice of the Udaller’s 
advances to acquaintance, than by uttering a low 
growl. 

“ He is not so well trained,” continued the Udal- 
ler, affecting an air of ease and unconcern, “ as 
Peter MacRaw’s, the old piper of Stornoway, who 
had a seal that flapped its tail to the tune of Caber- 
fae, and acknowledged no other whatever.^ — Well, 
cousin,” he concluded, observing that Norna closed 
her book, ‘‘ are you going to give us a welcome at 
last, or must we go farther than our blood-relation’s 
house to seek one, and that when the evening is 
wearing late apace ? ” 

“ Ye dull and hard-hearted generation, as deaf as 
the adder to the voice of the charmer,” answered 
Norna, addressing them, “ why come ye to me ? You 
have slighted every warning I could give of the 

1 The MacRaws were followers of the MacKenzies, whose chief 
has the name of Caberfae, or Buckshead, from the cognisance borne 
on his standards. Unquestionably the worthy piper trained the 
seal on the same principle of respect to the clan-term which I have 
heard has been taught to dogs, who, unused to any other air, dance 
after their fashion to the tune of Caberfae. 


Ill 


THE PIRATE. 


coming harm, and now that it hath come upon you, 
ye seek my counsel when it can avail you nothing.” 

“ Look you, kinswoman,” said the Udaller, with 
his usual frankness, and boldness of manner and ac- 
cent, “ I must needs tell you that your courtesy is 
something of the coarsest and. the coldest. I cannot 
say that I ever saw an adder, in regard there are 
none in these parts ; but touching my own thoughts 
of what such a thing may he, it cannot be termed a 
suitable comparison to me or to my daughters, and 
that I would have you to know. For old acquaint- 
ance, and certain other reasons, I do not leave your 
house upon the instant ; but as I came hither in all 
kindness and civility, so I pray you to receive me 
with the like, otherwise we will depart, and leave 
shame on your inhospitable threshold.” 

“How,” said Norna, “dare you use such bold lan- 
guage in the house of one from whom all men, from 
whom you yourself, come to solicit counsel and aid ? 
They who speak to the Reimkennar, must lower 
their voice to her before whom winds and waves 
hush both blast and billow.” 

“ Blast and billow may hush themselves if they 
will,” replied the peremptory Udaller, “but that will 
not 1. I speak in the house of my friend as in my 
own, and strike sail to none.” 

“And hope ye,” said Norna, “by this rudeness 
to compel me to answer to your interrogatories ? ” 

“ Kinswoman,” replied Magnus Troil, “ I know 
not so much as you of the old Norse sagas ; but 
this I know, that when kempies were wont, long 
since, to seek the habitations of the gall-dragons 
and spae-women, they came with their axes on 
their shoulders, and their good swords drawn in 
theii’ hands, and compelled the power whom they 


THE PIRATE. 


n3 

invoked to listen to and to answer them, ay were it 
Odin himself.” 

“ Kinsman,” said Norna, arising from her seat, 
and coming forward, “ thou hast spoken well, and 
in good time for thyself and thy daughters ; for 
liadst thou turned from my threshold without ex- 
torting an answer, morning’s sun had never again 
shone upon you. The spirits who serve me are 
jealous, and will not be employed in aught that 
may benefit humanity, unless their service is com- 
manded by the undaunted importunity of the brave 
and the free. And now speak, what wouldst thou 
have of me ? ” 

“ My daughter’s health,” replied Magnus, “ which 
no remedies have been able to restore.” 

“ Thy daughter’s health ? ” answered Norna ; “ and 
what is the maiden’s ailment ? ” 

“ The physician,” said Troil, “ must name the 
disease. All that I can tell thee of it is ” 

“ Be silent,” said Norna, interrupting him, “ I 
know all thou canst tell me, and more than thou 
thyself knowest. Sit down, all of you — and thou, 
maiden,” she said, addressing Minna, “ sit thou in 
that chair,” pointing to the place she had just left, 
“once the seat of Giervada, at whose voice the 
stars hid their beams, and the moon herself grew 
pale.” 

Minna moved with slow and tremulous step to- 
wards the rude seat thus indicated to her. It was 
composed of stone, formed into some semblance of 
a chair by the rough and unskilful hand of some 
ancient Gothic artist. 

Brenda, creeping as close as possible to her father, 
seated herself along with him upon a bench at some 
distance from. Minna, and kept her eyes, with a 

VOL. II. — 8 


THE PIRATE. 


ii4 

mixture of fear, pity, and anxiety, closely fixed upon 
her. It would be difficult altogether to decipher 
the emotions by which this amiable and affection- 
ate girl was agitated at the moment. Deficient in 
her sister’s predominating quality of high imagina- 
tion, and little credulous, of course, to the marvel- 
lous, she could not but entertain some vague and 
indefinite fears on her own account, concerning the 
nature of the scene which was soon to take place. 
But these were in a manner swallowed up in her 
apprehensions on the score of her sister, who, with 
a frame so much weakened, spirits so much ex- 
hausted, and a mind so susceptible of the impres- 
sions which all around her was calculated to excite, 
now sat pensively resigned to the agency of one, 
whose treatment might produce the most baneful 
effects upon such a subject. 

Brenda gazed at Minna, who sat in that rude 
chair of dark stone, her finely formed shape and 
limbs making the strongest contrast with its pon- 
derous and irregular angles, her cheek and lips as 
pale as clay, and her eyes turned upward, and 
lighted with the mixture of resignation and ex- 
cited enthusiasm, which belonged to her disease 
and her character. The younger sister then looked 
on Norna, who muttered to herself in a low monot- 
onous manner, as, gliding from one place to another, 
she collected different articles, which she placed one 
by one on the table. And lastly, Brenda looked 
anxiously to her father, to gather, if possible, from 
his countenance, whether he entertained any part of 
her own fears for the consequences of the scene 
which was to ensue, considering the state of Min- 
na’s health and spirits. But Magnus Troil seemed 
to have no such apprehensions; h^ viewed with 


THE PIRATE. 


115 

stern composure Noma’s preparations, and appeared 
to wait the event with the composure of one, who, 
confiding in the skill of a medical artist, sees him 
preparing to enter upon some important and painful 
operation, in the issue of which he is interested by 
friendship or by affection. 

Norna, meanwhile, went onward with her pre- 
parations, until she had placed on the stone table 
a variety of miscellaneous articles, and among the 
rest, a small chafing-dish full of charcoal, a crucible, 
and a piece of thin sheet-lead. She then spoke 
aloud — “ It is well that I was aware of your coming 
hither — ay, long before you yourself had resolved 
it — how should I else have been prepared for that 
which is now to be done ? — Maiden,” she continued, 
addressing Minna, where lies thy pain ? ” 

The patient answered, by pressing her hand to the 
left side of her bosom. 

“ Even so,” replied Norna, “ even so — ’tis the 
site of weal or woe. — And you, her father and her 
sister, think not this the idle speech of one who 
talks by guess — if I can tell thee ill, it may be that 
I shall be able to render that less severe, which may 
not, by any aid, be wholly amended. — The heart — 
ay, the heart — touch that, and the eye grows dim, 
the pulse fails, the wholesome stream of our blood 
is choked and troubled, our limbs decay like sapless 
sea- weed in a summer’s sun ; our better views of 
existence are past and gone; what remains is the 
dream of lost happiness, or the fear of inevitable 
evil. But the Reimkennar must to her work — 
well it is that I have prepared the means.” 

She threw off her long dark-coloured mantle, and 
stood before them in her short jacket of light-blue 
wadmaal, with its skirt of the same stuff, fancifully 


THE PIRATE. 


ii6 

embroidered with black velvet, and bound at the 
waist with a chain or girdle of silver, formed into 
singular devices. Norna next undid the fillet which 
bound her grizzled hair, and shaking her head wildly, 
caused it to fall in dishevelled abundance over her 
face and around her shoulders, so as almost en- 
tirely to hide her features. She then placed a small 
crucible on the chafiug-dish already mentioned, — 
dropped a few drops from a vial on the charcoal be- 
low, — pointed towards it her wrinkled forefinger, 
which she had previously moistened with liquid from 
another small bottle, and said with a deep voice, 
“ Fire, do thy duty ; ” — and the words were no sooner 
spoken, than, probably by some chemical combi- 
nation of which the spectators were not aware, the 
charcoal which was under the crucible became 
slowly ignited ; ^ while Norna, as if impatient of 
the delay, threw hastily back her disordered tresses, 
and, while her features reflected the sparkles and 
red light of the fire, and her eyes flashed from 
amongst her hair like those of a wild animal from its 
cover, blew fiercely till the whole was in an . intense 
glow. She paused a moment from her toil, and 
muttering that the elemental spirit must be thanked, 
recited, in her usual monotonous, yet wild mode of 
chanting, the following verses : — 

“Thou so needful, yet so dread, 

With cloudy crest, and wing of red; 

Thou, without whose genial breath 
The North would sleep the sleep of death; 

Who deign’st to warm the cottage hearth, 

Yet hurl’st proud palaces to earth, — 

Brightest, keenest of the Powers, 

Which form and rule this world of ours, 

With my rhyme of Runic, I 
Thank thee for thy agency*” 


THE PIRATE. 


117 

She then severed a portion from the small mass 
of sheet-lead which lay upon the table, and, placing 
it in the crucible, subjected it to the action of the 
lighted charcoal, and, as it melted, she sung, — 

“ Old Reimkeniiar, to thy art 
Mother Hertha sends her part; 

She, whose gracious bounty gives 
Needful food for all that lives. 

From the deep mine of the North, 

Came the mystic metal forth, 

Doom’d, amidst disjointed stones, 

Long to cere a champion’s bones, 

Disinhumed my charms to aid — 

Mother Earth, my thanks are paid.” 

She then poured out some water from the jar into 
a large cup, or goblet, and sung once more, as she 
slowly stirred it round with the end of her staff ; — 

** Girdle of our islands dear, 

Element of Water, hear 
Thou whose power can overwhelm 
Broken mounds and ruin’d realm 
On the lowly Belgian strand; 

All thy fiercest rage can never 
Of our soil a furlong sever 

From our rock-defended land; 

Play then gently thou thy part, 

To assist old Norna’s art.” 

She then, with a pair of pincers, removed the 
crucible from the chafing-dish, and poured the lead, 
now entirely melted, into the bowl of water, repeat- 
ing at the same time, — 

“ Elements, each other greeting, 

Gifts and powers attend your meeting 1** 


ii8 


THE PIRATE. 


The melted lead, spattering as it fell into the 
water, formed, of course, the usual combination of 
irregular forms which is familiar to all who in child- 
hood have made the experiment, and from which, 
according to our childish fancy, we may have selected 
portions bearing some resemblance to domestic ar- 
ticles. — the tools of mechanics, or the like. Norna 
seemed to busy herself in some such researches, for 
she examined the mass of lead with scrupulous 
attention, and detached it into different portions, 
without apparently being able to find a fragment in 
the form which she desired. 

At length she again muttered, rather as speak- 
ing to herself than to her guests, “ He, the View- 
less, will not be omitted, — he will have his tribute 
even in the work to which he gives nothing. — Stern 
compeller of the clouds, thou also shalt hear the 
voice of the Reimkennar.” 

Thus speaking, Norn a once more threw the lead 
into the crucible, where, hissing and spattering as 
the wet metal touched the sides of the red-hot ves- 
sel, it was soon again reduced into a state of fusion. 
The sibyl meantime turned to a corner of the apart- 
ment, and opening suddenly a window which looked 
to the north-west, let in the fitful radiance of the 
sun, now lying almost level upon a great mass of 
red clouds, which, boding future tempest, occupied 
the edge of the horizon, and seemed to brood over 
the billows of the boundless sea. Turning to this 
quarter, from which a low hollow moaning breeze 
then blew, Norna addressed the Spirit of the Winds, 
in tones which seemed to resemble his own : — 

“ Thou, that over billows dark 

Safely send’st the fisher’s bark, — 


THE PIRATE. 


119 

Giving him a path and motion 
Through the wilderness of ocean; 

Thou, that when the billows brave ye, 

O’er the shelves canst drive the navy, — 

Did’st thou chafe as one neglected, 

While thy brethren were respected ? * 

To appease thee, see, I tear 
This full grasp of grizzled hair; 

Oft thy breath hath through it sung, 

Softening to my'magic tongue, — 

Now, ’tis thine to bid it fly 
Through the wide expanse of sky, 

’Mid the countless swarms to sail 
Of wild-fowl wheeling on thy, gale; 

Take thy portion and rejoice, — 

Spirit, thou hast heard my voice ! ” 

Norna accompanied these words with the action 
which they described, tearing a handful of hair with 
vehemence from her head, and strewing it upon the 
wind as she continued her recitation. • She then shut 
the casement, and again involved the chamber in the 
dubious twilight, which best suited her character 
and occupation. The melted lead was once more 
emptied into the water, and the various whimsical 
conformations which it received from the operation 
were examined with great care by the sibyl, who 
at length seemed to intimate, by voice and gesture, 
that her spell had been successful. She selected 
from the fused metal a piece about the. size of a 
small nut, bearing in shape a close resemblance to 
that of the human heart, and, approaching Minna, 
again spoke in song : — 

“ She who sits by haunted well. 

Is subject to the Nixie’s spell; 

She who walks on lonely beach 
To the Mermaid’s charmed speech; 


120 


THE PIRATE. 


She who walks round ring of green, 

Offends the peevish Fairy Queen ; 

And she who takes rest in the Dwarfie’s cave, 
A weary weird of woe shall have. 


“ By ring, by spring, by cave, by shore, 

Minna Troil has braved all this and more: 

And yet hath the root of her sorrow and ill 
A source that’s more deep and more mystical still.” 


Minna, whose attention had been latterly some- 
thing disturbed by reflections on her own secret sor- 
row, now suddenly recalled it, and looked eagerly 
on Norna as if she expected to learn from her 
rhymes something of deep interest. The northern 
sibyl, meanwhile, proceeded to pierce the piece of 
lead, which bore the form of a heart, and to fix in it 
a piece of gold wire, by which it might be attached 
to a chain or necklace. She then proceeded in her 
rhyme, — 

“ Thou art within a demon’s hold, 

More wise than Heims, more strong than Trolld; 

No siren sings so sweet as he, — 

No fay springs lighter on the lea ; 

No elfin power hath half the art 
To soothe, to move, to wring the heart, — 

Life-blood' from the cheek to drain, 

Drench the eye, and dry the vein. 

Maiden, ere we farther go. 

Dost thou note me, ay or no ?” 

Minna replied in the same rhythmical manner, 
which, in jest and earnest, was frequently used by 
the ancient Scandinavians, — 

“ I mark thee, my mother, both word, look, and sign ; 

Speak on with the riddle — ta read it be mine^” 


THE PIRATE. 


I2I 


"Now, Heaven and every saint be praised !” said 
Magnus ; " they are the first words to the purpose 
which she hath spoken these many days,” 

“ And they are the last which she shall speak for 
many a month,” said Norna, incensed at the inter- 
ruption, "if you again break the progress of my 
spell. Turn your faces to the wall, and look not 
hitherward again, under penalty of my severe dis- 
pleasure. You, Magnus Troil, from hard-hearted 
audacity of spirit, and you, Brenda, from wanton 
and idle disbelief in that which is beyond your 
bounded comprehension, are unworthy to look on 
this mystic work ; and the glance of your eyes 
mingles with, and weakens, the spell ; for the 
powers cannot brook distrust.” 

Unaccustomed to be addressed in a tone so 
peremptory, Magnus would have made some 
angry reply ; but reflecting that the health of 
Minna was at stake, and considering that she 
who spoke was a woman of many sorrows, he sup- 
pressed his anger, bowed his head, shrugged his 
shoulders, assumed the prescribed posture, averting 
his head from the table, and turning towards the 
wall. Brenda did the same, on receiving a sign . 
from her father, and both remained profoundly 
silent. 

Norna then addressed Minna once more, — 

" Mark me ! for the word I speak 
Shall bring the colour to thy cheek. 

This leaden heart, so light of cost, 

The symbol of a treasure lost, 

Thou shalt wear in hope and in peace, 

That the cause of your sickness and sorrow may cease, 
When crimson foot meets crimson hand 
In the Martyrs’ Aisle, and in Orkney-land.” 


m22 


THE PIRATE. 


Minna coloured deeply at the last couplet, inti- 
mating, as she failed not to interpret it, that Norna 
was completely acquainted with the secret cause of 
her sorrow. The same conviction led the maiden to 
hope in the favourable issue, which the sibyl seemed 
to prophesy ; and not ■'venturing to express her feel- 
ings in any manner more intelligible, she pressed 
Norna’s withered hand with all the warmth of affec- 
tion, first to her breast and then to her bosom, bedew- 
ing it at the same time with her tears. 

With more of human feeling than she usually ex- 
hibited, Norna extricated her hand from the grasp 
of the poor girl, whose tears now flowed freely, 
and then, with more tenderness of manner than 
she had yet shown, she knotted the leaden heart 
to a chain of gold, and hung it around Minna’s 
neck, singing, as she performed that last branch 
of the spell, — 

“ Be patient, be patient, for Patience hath power 
To ward us in danger, like mantle in shower; 

A fairy gift you best may hold 
In a chain of fairy gold ; 

The chain and the gift are each a true token, 

That not without warrant old Norna has spoken; 

But thy nearest and dearest must never behold them. 

Till time shall accomplish the truths I have told them.” 

The verses being concluded, Norna carefully ar- 
ranged the chain around her patient’s neck so as to 
hide it in her bosom, and thus ended the spell — a 
spell which, at the moment I record these incidents, 
it is known, has been lately practised in Zetland, 
where any decline of health, without apparent cause, 
is imputed by the lower orders to a demon having 
stolen the heart from the body of the patient, and 


THE PIRITE. 


123 


where the experiment of supplying the deprivation 
by a leaden one, prepared in the manner described, 
has been resorted to within these few years. In a 
metaphorical sense, the disease may be considered 
as a general one in all parts of the world ; but, as 
this simple and original remedy is peculiar to the 
isles of Thule, it were unpardonable not to preserve 
it at length, in a narrative connected with Scottish 
antiquities.^ 

A second time Norna reminded her patient, that 
if she showed, or spoke of, the fairy gifts, their 
virtue would be lost — a belief so common as to 
be received into the superstitions of all nations. 
Lastly, unbuttoning the collar which she had just 
fastened, she showed her a link of the gold chain, 
which Minna instantly recognised as that formerly 
given by Horna to Mordaunt Mertoun. This seemed* 
to intimate he was yet alive, and under Noma’s pro- 
tection ; and she gazed on her with the most eager 
curiosity. But the sibyl imposed her finger on her 
lips in token of silence, and a second time involved 
the chain in those folds which modestly and closely 
veiled one of the most beautiful, as well as one of 
the kindest, bosoms in the world. 

Norna then extinguished the lighted charcoal, and, 
as the water hissed upon the glowing embers, com- 
manded Magnus and Brenda to look around, and 
behold her task accomplished. 

1 The spells described in this chapter are not altogether imagi- 
nary. By this mode of pouring lead into water, and selecting the 
part which chances to assume a resemblance to the human heart, 
which must be worn by the patient around her or his neck, the 
sage persons of Zetland pretend to cure the fatal disorder called the 
loss of a heart. 


CHAPTER IX. 


See yonder woman, whom our swains revere, 

And dread in secret, while they take her counsel 

When sweetheart shall be kind, or when cross dame shall die; 

Where lurks the thief who stole the silver tankard. 

And how the pestilent murrain may be cured. — 

This sage adviser’s mad, stark mad, my friend ; 

Yet, in her madness, hath the art and cunning 
To wring fools’ secrets from their inmost hosoms, 

And pay enquirers with the coin they gave her. 

Old Play, 


•It seemed as if Xorna had indeed full right to claim 
the gratitude of the Udaller for the improved con- 
dition of his daughter’s health. She once more 
threw open the window, and Minna, drying her 
eyes and advancing with affectionate confidence, . 
threw herself on her father’s neck, and asked his 
forgiveness for the trouble she had of late occa- 
sioned to him. It is unnecessary to add, that this 
was at once granted, with a full, though rough burst 
of parental tenderness, and as many close embraces 
as if his child had been just rescued from the 
jaws of death. When Magnus had dismissed Minna 
from his arms, to throw herself into those of her 
sister, and express to her, rather by kisses and tears 
than in words, the regret she entertained for her 
late wayward conduct, the Udaller thought proper, 
in the meantime, to pay his thanks to their hostess, 
whose skill had proved so efficacious. But scarce 
had he come out with, “Much respected kinswoman, 


THE PIEATE. 


125 


I am but a plain old Norseman/’ — when she inter- 
rupted him, by pressing her finger on her lips. 

“ There are those around us,” she said, “ who 
must hear no mortal voice, witness no sacrifice to 
mortal feelings — there are times when they mutiny 
even against me, their sovereign mistress, because I 
am still shrouded in the flesh of humanity. Fear, 
therefore, and be silent. I, whose deeds have raised 
me from the low-sheltered valley of life, where dwell 
its social wants and common charities ; — I, who 
have bereft the Giver of the Gift which he gave, 
and stand alone on a cliff of immeasurable height, 
detached from earth, save from the small portion 
that supports my miserable tread — I alone am fit 
to cope with those sullen mates. Fear not, there- 
fore, but yet be not too bold, and let this night to 
you be one of fasting and of prayer.” 

If the Udaller had not, before the commencement 
of the operation, been disposed to dispute the com- 
mands of the sibyl, it may be well believed he was 
less so now, that it had terminated to all appearance 
so fortunately. So he sat down in silence, and 
seized upon a volume which lay near him as a sort 
of desperate effort to divert ennui, for on no other 
occasion had Magnus been known to have recourse 
to a book for that purpose. It chanced to be a book 
much to his mind, being the well-known work of 
Olaus Magnus, upon the manners of the ancient 
Northern nations. The book is unluckily in the 
Latin language, and the Danske or Dutch were, 
either of them, much more familiar to the Udaller. 
But then it was the fine edition published in 1555, 
which contains representations of the war-chariots, 
fishing exploits, warlike exercises, and domestic em- 
ployments of the Scandinavians, executed on copper- 


126 


THE PIRATE. 


plates ; and thus the information which the work 
refused to the understanding, was addressed to the 
eye, which, as is well known both to old and young, 
answers the purpose of amusement as well, if not 
better. 

Meanwhile the two sisters, pressed as close to 
each other as two flowers on the same stalk, sat 
with their arms reciprocally passed over each other’s 
shoulder, as if they feared some new and unforeseen 
cause of coldness was about to separate them, and 
interrupt the sister-like harmony which had been 
hut just restored. Norna sat opposite to them, 
sometimes revolving the large parchment volume 
with which they had found her employed at their 
entrance, and sometimes gazing on the sisters with 
a fixed look, in which an interest of a kind unusu- 
ally tender, seemed occasionally to disturb the stern 
and rigorous solemnity of her countenance. All was 
still and silent as death, and the subsiding emotions 
of Brenda had not yet permitted her to wonder 
whether the remaining hours of the evening were 
to be passed in the same manner, when the scene of 
tranquillity was suddenly interrupted by the en- 
trance of the dwarf Pacolet, or, as the Udaller called 
him, Nicholas Strumpfer. 

Norna darted an angry glance on the intruder, 
who seemed to deprecate her resentment by holding 
up his hands and uttering a babbling sound ; then, 
instantly resorting to his usual mode of conversa- 
tion, he expressed himself by a variety of signs 
made rapidly upon his fingers, and as rapidly an- 
swered by his mistress, so that the young women, 
who had never heard of such an ari, and now saw it 
practised by two beings so singular, almost con- 
ceived their mutual intelligence the work of en^ 


THE PIRATE. 


127 


chantment. When they had ceased their intercourse, 
Norn a turned to Magnus Troil with much haughti- 
ness, and said, “ How, my kinsman ? have you so 
far forgot yourself, as to bring earthly food into the 
house of the Reimkennar, and make preparations in 
the dwelling of Power and of Despair, for refection, 
and wassail, and revelry? — Speak not — answer 
not,” she said ; “ the duration of the cure which was 
wrought even now, depends on your silence and 
obedience — bandy hut a single look or word with 
me, and the. latter condition of that maiden shall be 
worse than the first ! ” 

This threat was an effectual charm upon the 
tongue of the Udaller, though he longed to indulge 
it in vindication of his conduct. 

“ Follow me, all of you,” said Norna, striding to 
the door of the apartment, “ and see that no one 
looks backwards — we leave not this apartment 
empty, though we, the children of mortality, be re- 
moved from it.” 

She went out, and the Udaller signed to his 
daughters to follow, and to obey her injunctions. 
The sibyl moved swifter than her guests down the 
rude descent, (such it might rather he termed, than 
a proper staircase,) which led to the lower apart- 
ment. Magnus and his daughters, when they en- 
tered the chamber, found their own attendants 
aghast at the presence and proceedings of Norna of 
the Fitful-head. 

They had been previously employed in arranging 
the provisions which they had brought along with 
them, so as to present a comfortable cold meal, as 
soon as the appetite of the Udaller, which was as 
regular as the return of tide, should induce him to 
desire some refreshment ; and now they stood star- 


128 


THE PIRATE. 


ing in fear and surprise, while Norna, seizing upon 
one article after another, and well supported by the 
zealous activity of Pacolet, flung their whole pre- 
parations out of the rude aperture which served 
for a window, and over the cliff, from which the 
ancient Burgh arose, into the ocean, which raged 
and foamed beneath. Vifda, (dried beef,) hams, and 
pickled pork, flew after each other into empty space, 
smoked geese were restored to the air, and cured 
fish to the sea, their native elements indeed, but 
which they were no longer capable of traversing ; 
and the devastation proceeded so rapidly, that the 
Udaller could scarce secure from the wreck his sil- 
ver drinking cup ; while the large leathern flask of 
brandy, which was destined to supply his favourite 
beverage, was sent to follow the rest of the supper, 
by the hands of Pacolet, who regarded, at the same 
time, the disappointed Udaller with a malicious 
grin, as if, notwithstanding his own natural taste 
for the liquor, he enjoyed the disappointment and 
surprise of Magnus Troil still more than he would 
have relished sharing his enjoyment. 

The destruction of the brandy flask exhausted 
the patience of Magnus, who roared out, in a tone 
of no small displeasure, “ Why, kinswoman, this 
is wasteful madness — where, and on what, would 
you have us sup ? ” 

“Where you will,” answered Uorna, “and on 
what you will — but not in my dwelling, and not 
on the food with which you have profaned it. Vex 
my spirit no more, but begone every one of you ! 
You have been here too long for my good, perhaps 
for your own.” 

“ How, kinswoman,” said Magnus, “ would you 
make outcasts of us at this time of night, when even 


THE PIRATE. 


129 


a Scotchman would not turn a stranger from the 
door ? — Bethink you, dame, it is shame on our 
lineage for ever, if this squall of yours should force 
us to slip cables, and go to sea so scantily 
provided.” 

Be silent, and depart,” said Horna ; “ let it suf- 
fice you have got that for which you came. I have 
no harbourage for mortal guests, no provision to 
relieve human wants. There is beneath the cliff, a 
beach of the finest sand, a stream of water as pure 
as the well of Kildinguie, and the rocks bear dulse 
as wholesome as that of Guiodiii ; and well you wot, 
that the well of Kildinguie and the dulse of Guio- 
din will cure all maladies save Black Death.” ^ 

“ And well I wot,” said the Udaller, that I 
would eat corrupted sea- weeds like a starling, or 
salted seal’s flesh like the men of Burraforth, or 
wilks, buckies, and lampits, like the poor sneaks 
of Stroma, rather than break wheat bread and drink 
red wine in a house where it is begrudged me. — 
And yet,” he said, checking himself, “ I am wrong, 
very wrong, my cousin, to speak thus to you, and I 
should rather thank you for what you have done, 
than upbraid you for following your own ways. 
But I see you are impatient — we will be all under 
way presently. — And you, ye knaves,” addressing 
his servants, “ that were in such hurry with your 
service before it was lacked, get out of doors with 
you presently, and manage to catch the ponies ; for 
I see we must make for another harbour to-night, 
if we would not sleep with an empty stomach, and 
on a hard bed.” 

The domestics of Magnus, already sufficiently 
alarmed at the violence of Korna’s conduct, scarce 
1 So at least says a^ Orkney proverb. 

VQJ,. ij. — 9 


THE PIRATE. 


130 

waited the imperious command of their master to 
evacuate her dwelling with all dispatch ; and the 
Udaller, with a daughter on each arm, was in the 
act of following them, when Norna said empha- 
tically, “ Stop ! ” They obeyed, and again turned 
towards her. She held out her hand to Magnus, 
which the placable Udaller instantly folded in his 
own ample palm. 

“Magnus,” she said, “we part by necessity, but, 
I trust, not in anger ? ” 

“ Surely not, cousin,” said the warm-hearted 
Udaller, wellnigh stammering in his hasty discla- 
mation of all unkindness, — “ most assuredly not. 
I never bear ill-will to any one, much less to one 
of my own blood, and who has piloted me with her 
advice through many a rough tide, as I would pilot 
a boat betwixt Swona and Stroma, through all the 
waws, wells, and swelchies of the Pentland Frith.” 

“ Enough,” said Norna, “ and now farewell, with 
such a blessing as I dare bestow — not a word 
more ! — Maidens,” she added, “ draw near, and let 
me kiss your brows.” 

The sibyl was obeyed by Minna with awe, and 
by Brenda with fear ; the one overmastered by the 
warmth of her imagination, the other by the natu- 
ral timidity of her constitution. Norna then dis- 
missed them, and in two minutes afterwards they 
found themselves beyond the bridge, and standing 
upon the rocky platform in front of the ancient 
Pictish Burgh, which it was the pleasure of this se- 
questered female to inhabit. The night, for it was 
now fallen, was unusually serene. A bright twilight, 
which glimmered far over the surface of the sea, 
supplied the brief absence of the summer’s sun ; 
and the waves seemed to sleep under its influence, so 


THE PIRATE. 


*31 


faint and slumberous was the sound with which one 
after another rolled on and burst against the foot 
of the cliff on which they stood. In front of them 
stood the rugged fortress, seeming, in the uniform 
greyness of the atmosphere, as aged, as shapeless, 
and as massive, as the rock on which it was founded. 
There was neither sight nor sound that indicated 
human habitation, save that from one rude shot- 
hole glimmered the flame of the feeble lamp by 
which the sibyl was probably pursuing her mysti- 
cal and nocturnal studies, shooting upon the twilight, 
in which it was soon lost and confounded, a single 
line of tiny light ; bearing the same proportion to 
that of the atmosphere, as the aged woman and her 
serf, the sole inhabitants of that desert, did to the 
solitude with which they. were surrounded. 

For several minutes, the party, thus suddenly and 
unexpectedly expelled from the shelter where they 
had reckoned upon spending the night, stood in 
silence, each wrapt in their own separate reflections. 
Minna, her thoughts fixed on the mystical conso- 
lation which she had received, in vain endeavoured 
to extract from the words of Norna a more distinct 
and intelligible meaning ; and the Udaller had not 
yet recovered his surprise at the extrusion to which 
he had been thus whimsically subjected, under cir- 
cumstances that prohibited him from resenting as 
an insult, treatment, which, in all other respects, was 
so shocking to the genial hospitality of his nature, 
that he still felt like one disposed to be angry, if he 
but knew how to set about it. Brenda was the first 
who brought matters to a point, by asking whither 
they were to go, and how they were to spend the 
night ? The question, which was asked in a tone, 
that, amidst its simplicity, had something dolorous 


THE PIRATE. 


132 

in it, entirely changed the train of her father’s ideas ; 
and the unexpected perplexity of their situation now 
striking him in a comic point of view, he laughed 
till his very eyes ran over, while every rock around 
him rang, and the sleeping sea-fowl were startled 
from their repose, by the loud, hearty explosions of 
his obstreperous hilarity. 

The Udaller’s daughters, eagerly representing to 
their father the risk of displeasing Norna by this 
unlimited indulgence of his mirth, united their 
efforts to drag him to a farther distance from her 
dwelling. Magnus, yielding to their strength, 
which, feeble as it was, his own fit of laughter ren- 
dered him incapable of resisting, suffered himself to 
-be pulled to a considerable distance from the Burgh, 
and then escaping from their hands, and sitting 
down, or rather suffering himself to drop, upon a 
large stone which lay conveniently by the wayside, 
he again laughed so long and lustily, that his vexed 
and anxious daughters became afraid that there 
was something more than natural in these repeated 
convulsions. 

At length his mirth exhausted both itself and the 
Udaller’s strength. He groaned heavily, wiped his 
eyes, and said, uot without feeling some desire to 
renew his obstreperous cachinnation, “ Now, by the 
bones of Saint Magnus, my ancestor and namesake, 
one would imagine that being turned out of doors, 
at this time of night, was nothing short of an abso- 
lutely exquisite jest ; for I have shaken my sides at 
it till they ache. There we sat, made snug for the 
night, and I made as sure of a good supper and a 
can as ever I had been of either, — and here we are 
all taken aback ! and then poor Brenda’s doleful 
voice, and melancholy question, of ‘ What is to be 


THE PIRATE. 


*33 

done, and where are we to sleep ? ' In good faith, 
unless one of those knaves, who must needs torment 
the poor woman by their trencher-work before it 
was wanted, can make amends by telling us of some 
snug port under our lee, we have no other course 
for it but to steer through the twilight on the bear- 
ing of Burgh -Westra, and rough it out as well as 
we can by the way. I am sorry but for you, girls ; 
for many a cruize have I been upon when we were 
on shorter allowance than we are like to have now. 
— I would I had but secured a morsel for you, and 
a drop for myself; and then there had been but 
little to complain of.” 

Both sisters hastened to assure the XJdaller that 
they felt not the least occasion for food. 

“ Why, that is well,” said Magnus : “ and so 
being the case, I will not complain of my own ap- 
petite, though it is sharper than convenient. And 
the rascal, Nicholas Strumpfer, — what a leer the 
villain gave me as he started the good Nantz into 
the salt-water ! He grinned, the knave, like a seal 
on a skerry. — Had it not been for vexing my 
poor kinswoman Norna, I would have sent his 
misbegotten body, and misshapen jolterhead, af- 
ter my bonny flask, as sure as Saint Magnus lies at 
Kirkwall ! ” 

By this time the servants returned with the 
ponies, which they had very soon caught — these 
sensible animals finding nothing so captivating in 
the pastures where they had been suffered to stray, 
as inclined them to resist the invitation again to 
subject themselves to saddle and bridle. The pros- 
pects of the party were also considerably improved 
by learning that the contents of their sumpter- 
pony’s burden had not been entirely exhausted, — a 


^34 


THE PIRATE. 


small basket having fortunately escaped the rage of 
Norna and Pacolet, by the rapidity with which one 
of the servants had caught up and removed it. The 
same domestic, an alert and ready-witted fellow, 
had observed upon the beach, not above three miles 
distant from the Burgh, and about a quarter of a mile 
off their straight path, a deserted Skio, or fisher- 
man’s hut, and suggested that they should occupy 
it for the rest of the night, in order that the ponies 
might be refreshed, and the young ladies spend the 
night under cover from the raw evening air. 

When we are delivered from great and serious 
dangers, our mood is, or ought to be, grave, in pro- 
portion to the peril we have escaped, and the grati- 
tude due to protecting Providence. But few things 
raise the spirits more naturally, or more harmlessly, 
than when means of extrication from any of the 
lesser embarrassments of life are suddenly presented 
to us; and such was the case in the present in- 
stance. The Udaller, relieved from the apprehen- 
sions for his daughters suffering from fatigue, and 
himself from too much appetite and too little food, 
carolled Norse ditties, as he spurred Bergen through 
the twilight, with as much glee and gallantry as if 
the night-ride had been entirely a matter of his own 
free choice. Brenda lent her voice to some of his 
choruses, which were echoed in ruder notes by the 
servants, who, in that simple state of society, were 
not considered as guilty of any breach of respect 
by mingling their voices with the song. Minna, in- 
deed, was as yet unequal to such an effort ; but she 
compelled herself to assume some share in the gen- 
eral hilarity of the meeting ; and, contrary to her 
conduct since the fatal morning which concluded 
the Festival of Saint John, she seemed to take her 


THE PIRATE. 


135 


usual interest in what was going on around her, and 
answered with kindness and readiness the repeated 
enquiries concerning her health, with which the 
Udaller every now and then interrupted his carol. 
And thus they proceeded by night, a happier party 
by far than they had been when they traced the 
same route on the preceding morning, making light 
of the difficulties of the way, and promising them- 
selves shelter and a comfortable night’s rest in the 
deserted hut which they were now about to ap- 
proach, and which they expected to find in a state 
of darkness and solitude. 

But it was the lot of the Udaller that day to be 
deceived more than once in his calculations. 

“ And which way- lies this cabin of yours, Lau- 
rie ? ” said the Udaller, addressing the intelligent 
domestic of whom we just spoke. 

“ Yonder it should be,” said Laurence Scholey, 
“ at the head of the voe — but, by my faith, if it be 
the place, there are folk there before us — God and 
Saint Ronan send that they be canny company ! ” 

In truth there was a light in the deserted hut, 
strong enough to glimmer through every chink of 
the shingles ind wreck-wood of which it was con- 
structed, and to give the whole cabin the appear- 
ance of a smithy seen by night. The universal 
superstition of the Zetlanders seized upon Magnus 
and his escort. 

“ They are trows,” said one voice. 

“ They are witches,” murmured another. 

“ They are mermaids,” muttered a third ; " only 
hear their wild singing ! ” 

All stopped; and, in effect, some notes of mu- 
sic were audible, which Brenda, with a voice that 
quivered a little, but yet had a turn of arch ridi- 


136 THE PIRATE. 

• cule in its tone, pronounced to be the sound of a 
fiddle. 

“ Fiddle or fiend,” said the Udaller, who, if he 
believed in such nightly apparitions as had struck 
terror into his retinue, certainly feared them not — 
fiddle or fiend, may the devil fetch me if a witch 
cheats me out of supper to-night, for the second 
time ! ” 

So saying, he dismounted, clenched his trusty 
truncheon in his hand, and advanced towards the 
hut, followed by Laurence alone; the rest of his 
retinue continuing stationary on the beach beside 
his daughters and the ponies. 


CHAPTEE X. 


What ho, my jovial mates ! come on ! we’ll frolic it 
Like fairies frisking in the merry moonshine, 

Seen by the curtal friar, who, from some christening 
Or some blithe bridal, hies belated cell-ward — 

He starts, and changes his bold bottle swagger 
To churchman’s pace professional, and, ransacking 
His treacherous memory for some holy hymn, 

Finds but the roundel of the midnight catch. 

Old Play. 

The stride of the Udaller relaxed nothing of its 
length or of its firmness as he approached the glim- 
mering cabin, from which he now heard distinctly 
the sound of the fiddle. But, if still long and firm, 
his steps succeeded each other rather more slowly 
than usual ; for, like a cautious, though a brave 
general, Magnus was willing to reconnoitre his 
enemy before assailing him. The trusty Laurence 
Scholey, who kept close behind his master, now 
whispered into his ear, “ So help me, sir, as I believe 
that the ghaist, if ghaist it be, that plays so bravely 
on the fiddle, must be the ghaist of Maister Claud 
Halcro, or his wraith at least ; for never was bow 
drawn across ' thairm which brought out the gude 
auld spring of ^ Fair and Lucky,’ so like his ain.” 

Magnus was himself much of the same opinion ; 
for he knew the blithe minstrelsy of the spirited 
little old man, and hailed the hut with a hearty hil- 
loah, which was immediately replied to by the cheery 
note of his ancient messmate, and Halcro himself 
presently made his appearance on the beach. 


13 ^ 


THE pirate. 


The Udaller now signed to his retinue to comO 
up, while he asked his friend, after a kind greet- 
ing and much shaking of hands, “ How the devil 
he came to sit there, playing old tunes in so deso- 
late a place, like an owl whooping to the moon ? ” 
“And tell me rather, Fowd,” said Claud Halcro, 
“ how you came to be within hearing of me ? ay, 
by my word, and with your bonny daughters, too ? 
— Jarto Minna and Jarto Brenda, I bid you wel- 
come to these yellow sands — and there shake hands, 
as glorious John, or some other body, says, upon 
the same occasion. And how came you here like 
two fair swans, making day out of twilight, and 
turning all you step upon to silver ? ” 

“You shall know all about them presently,” 
answered Magnus ; “ but what messmates have 
you got in the hut with you ? I think I hear some 
one speaking.” 

“ None,” replied Claud Halcro, *•' but that poor 
creature, the Factor, and my imp of a boy Giles. 
I — but come in — come in — here you will find us 
starving in comfort — not so much as a mouthful 
of sour sillocks to be had for love or money.” 

“ That may be in a small part helped,” said the 
Udaller ; “ for though the best of our supper is gone 
over the Fitful Crags to the sealchies and the dog- 
fish, yet we have got something in the kit still. — 
Here, Laurie, bring up the vifda^ 

“ Jokul, jokul ! ” ^ was Laurence’s joyful answer ; 
and he hastened for the basket. 

“ By the bicker of Saint Magnus,” ^ said Halcro, 

1 Jokul, yes, sir; a Norse expression, still in common use. 

2 The Bicker of Saint Magnus, a vessel of enormous dimen- 
sions, was preserved at Kirkwall, and presented to each bishop 
of the Orkneys. If the new incumbent was able to quaff it out at 


THE PIRATE. 


139 


"•and the burliest bishop that ever quaffed it for 
luck’s sake, there is no finding your locker empty, 
Magnus ! I believe sincerely that ere a friend 
wanted, you could, like old Luggie the warlock, fish 
up boiled and roasted out of the pool of Kibster.” ^ 

“ You are wrong there, Jarto Claud,” said Magnus 
Troil, “ for far from helping me to a supper, the 
foul fiend, I believe, has carried off great part of 
mine this blessed evening; but you are welcome 
to share and share of what is left.” This was said 
while the party entered the hut. 

Here, in a cabin which smelled strongly of dried 
fish, and whose sides and roof were jet-black with 
smoke, they found the unhappy Triptolemus Yel- 
lowley seated beside a fire made of dried sea-weed, 
mingled with some peats and wreck-wood ; his sole 
companion a barefooted, yellow-haired Zetland boy, 
who acted occasionally as a kind of page to Claud 
Halcro, bearing his fiddle on his shoulder, saddling 
his pony, and rendering him similar duties of kindly 
observance. The disconsolate agriculturist, for such 
his visage betokened him, displayed little surprise, 
and less animation, at the arrival of the Udaller and 
his companions, until, after the party had drawn 
close to the fire, (a neighbourhood which the damp- 
ness of the night air rendered far from disagreeable,) 
the pannier was opened, and a tolerable supply of 

one draught, which was a task for Hercules or Rorie Mhor of 
Dunvegan, the omen boded a crop of unusual fertility. 

1 Luggie, a famous conjurer, was wont, when storms pre- 
vented him from going to his usual employment of fishing, to 
angle over a steep rock, at the place called, from his name, Lug- 
gie’s Knoll. At other times he drew up dressed food while they 
were out at sea, of which his comrades partook boldly from nat- 
ural courage, without caring who stood cook. The poor man was 
finally condemned and burnt at Scalloway.- 


140 


THE PIRATE. 


barley-bread and hung beef, besides a flask of 
brandy, (no doubt smaller than that which the re- 
lentless hand of Pacolet had emptied into the 
ocean,) gave assurances of a tolerable supper. Then, 
indeed, the worthy Factor grinned, chuckled, rubbed 
his hands, and enquired after all friends at Burgh- 
Westra. 

When they had all partaken of this needful re- 
freshment, the Udaller repeated his enquiries of 
Halcro, and more particularly of the Factor, how 
they came to be nestled in such a remote corner 
at such an hour of night. 

“ Maister Magnus Troil,” said Triptolemus, when 
a second cup had given him spirits to tell his tale 
of woe, “ I would not have you think that it is a 
little thing that disturb^ me. I came of that grain 
that takes a sair wind to shake it. I have seen 
many a Maytinmas and many a Whitsunday in my 
day, whilk are the times peculiarly grievous to those 
of my craft, and I could aye bide the bang; but 
I think I am like to be dung ower a’thegither 
in this damned country of yours — Gude forgie me 
for swearing — but evil communication corrupteth 
good manners.” 

“ Now, Heaven guide us,” said the Udaller, “ what 
is the matter with the man ? Why, man, if you will 
put your plough into new land, you must look to 
have it hank on a stone now and then — You must 
set us an example of patience, seeing you come here 
for our improvement.” 

“ And the deil was in my feet when I did so,” 
said the Factor; “I had better have set myself to 
improve the cairn on Clochnaben.” 

“But what is it, after all,” said the Udaller, “that 
has befallen you?— .what is it that you complain of ? ” 


THE PIRATE. 


141 

“ Of every thing that has chanced to me since I 
landed on this island, which I believe was accursed 
at the very creation,” said the agriculturist, “ and 
assigned as a fitting station for sorners, thieves, 
whores, (I beg the ladies’ pardon,) witches, bitches, 
and all evil spirits ! ” 

“ By my faith, a goodly catalogue ! ” said Mag- 
nus ; “ and there has been the day, that if I had 
heard you give out the half of it, I should have 
turned improver myself, and have tried to amend 
your manners with a cudgel.” 

“ Bear with me,” said the Factor, “ Maister Fowd, 
or Maister Udaller, or whatever else they may call 
you, and as you are strong be pitiful, and consider 
the luckless lot of any inexperienced person who 
lights upon this earthly paradise of yours. He asks 
for drink, they bring him sour whey — no disparage- 
ment to your brandy, Fowd, which is excellent — 
You ask for meat, and they bring you sour sillocks 
that Satan might choke upon — You call your 
labourers together, and bid them work ; it proves 
Saint Magnus’s day, or Saint Ronan’s day, or some 
infernal saint or other’s — or else, perhaps, they 
have come out of bed with the wrong foot foremost, 
or they have seen an owl, or a rabbit has crossed 
their path, or they have dreamed of a roasted horse 
— in short, nothing is to be done — Give them a 
spade, and they work as if it burned their fingers ; 
but set them to dancing, and see when they will 
tire of funking and Hinging ! ” 

“ And why should they, poor bodies,” said Claud 
Halcro, as long as there are good fiddlers to play 
to them ? ” 

“ Ay, ay,” said Triptolemus, shaking his head, 
“ you are a proper person to uphold them in such 


142 


THE PIRATE. 


a humour. Well, to proceed : — I till a piece of 
my best ground ; down comes a sturdy beggar that 
wants a kailyard, or a plant-a-cruive, as you call it, 
and he claps down an enclosure in the middle of 
my bit shot of corn, as lightly as if he was baith 
laird and tenant ; and gainsay him wha likes, there 
he dibbles in his kail-plants! I sit down to my 
sorrowful dinner, thinking to have peace and quiet- 
ness there at least ; when in comes one, two, three, 
four, or half-a-dozen of skelping long lads, from 
some ' foolery or anither, misca’ me for barring my 
ain door against them, and eat up the best half of 
what my sister’s providence — and she is not over 
bountiful — has allotted for my dinner ! Then en- 
ters a witch, with an ellwand in her hand, and she 
raises the wind or lays it, whichever she likes, 
majors up and down my house as if she was mis- 
tress of it, and I am bounden to thank Heaven if 
she carries not the broadside of it away with her ! ” 

“Still,” said the Fowd, “this is no answer to my 
question — how the foul fiend I come to find you at 
moorings here ? ” 

“ Have patience, worthy sir,” replied the afflicted 
Factor, “ and listen to what I have to say, for I 
fancy it will be as well to tell you the whole mat- 
ter. You must know, I once thought that I had 
gotten a small godsend, that might have made all 
these matters easier.” 

“ How ! a godsend ! Do you mean a wreck. 
Master Factor ? ” exclaimed Magnus ; “ shame upon 
you, that should have set example to others ! ” 

“ It was no wreck,” said the Factor ; “ but, if 
you must needs know, it chanced that as I raised 
an hearthstane in one of the old chambers at Stour- 
burgh, (for my sister is minded that there is little 


THE PIRATE. 


143 


ase in mair fire-places about a house than one, and 
I wanted the stane to knock bear upon,) when, 
what should I light on but a horn full of old coins, 
silver the maist feck of them, but wi’ a bit sprink- 
ling of gold amang them too.^ Weel, I thought this 
was a dainty windfa’, and so thought Baby, and we 
were the mair willing to put up with a place where 
there were siccan braw nest-eggs — and we slade 
down the stane cannily over the horn, which seemed 
to me to be the very cornucopia, or horn of abun- 
dance ; and for further security. Baby wad visit 
the room maybe twenty times in the day, and my- 
sell at an orra time, to the boot of a’ that.” 

“ On my word, and a very pretty amusement,” 
said Claud Halcro, “ to look over a horn of one’s 
own siller. I question if glorious John Dry den 
ever enjoyed such a pastime in his life — I am very 
sure I never did.” 

“Yes, but you forget, Jarto Claud,” said the 
Udaller, “ that the Factor was only counting over 
the money for my Lord the Chamberlain. As he is 
so keen for his Lordship’s rights in whales and 
wrecks, he would not surely forget him in treasure- 
trove.’* 

“ A-hem ! a-hem ! a-he — he — hem ! ” ejaculated 
Triptolemus, seized at the moment with an awk- 
ward fit of coughing, — “ no doubt, my Lord’s right 
in the matter would have been considered, being in 
the hand of one, though I say it. as just as can be 
found in Angus-shire, let alone the Mearns. But 
mark what happened of late ! One day, as I went 
up to see that all was safe and snug, and just to 
count out the share that should have been his Lord- 
ship’s — for surely the labourer, as one may call the 
1 Note IV. — Antique Coins found in Zetland. 


144 


THE PIRATE. 


finder, is worthy of his hire — nay, some learned men 
say, that when the finder, in point of trust and in 
point of power, representeth the dominus, or lord 
superior, he taketh the whole ; but let that pass, as 
a kittle question in ajpicibus juris, as we wont to 
say at Saint Andrews — Well, sir and ladies, when 
I went to the upper chamber, what should I see but 
an ugsome, ill-shaped, and most uncouth dwarf, that 
wanted but hoofs and horns to have made an utter 
devil of him, counting over the very hornful of 
siller! I am no timorous man. Master Fowd, but, 
judging that I should proceed with caution in such 
a matter — for I had reason to believe that there was 
devilry in it — I accosted him in Latin, (whilk it is 
maist becoming to speak to aught whilk taketh 
upon it as a goblin,) and conjured him in nomine, 
and so forth, with such words as my poor learning 
could furnish of a suddenty, whilk, to say truth, were 
not so many, nor altogether so purely latineezed as 
might have been, had I not been few years at col- 
lege, and many at the pleugh. Well, sirs, he started 
at first, as one that heareth that which he expects 
not ; but presently recovering himself, he wawls on 
me with his grey een, like a wild-cat, and opens his 
mouth, whilk resembled the mouth of an oven, for 
the deil a tongue he had in it, that I could spy, and 
took upon his ugly self, altogether the air and bear- 
ing of a bull-dog, whilk I have seen loosed at a fair 
upon a mad staig ; ^ whereupon I was something 
daunted, and withdrew myself to call upon sister 
Baby, who fears neither dog nor devil, when there 
is in question the little penny siller. And truly she 
raise to the fray as T hae seen the Lindsays and 


Y oung unbroke horse. 


THE PIRATE. 


145 


Ogilvies bristle up, when Donald MacDonnoch, or 
the like, made a start down frae the Highlands on 
the braes of Islay. But an auld useless carline, 
called Tronda Dronsdaughter, (they might call her 
Drone the sell of her, without farther addition,) 
flung herself right in my sister’s gate, and yelloched 
and skirled, that you would have thought her a 
whole generation of hounds ; whereupon I judged 
it best to make ae yoking of it, and stop the pleugh 
until I got my sister’s assistance. Whilk when I 
had done, and we mounted the stair to the apart- 
ment in which the said dwarf, devil, or other appa- 
rition, was to be seen, dwarf, horn, and siller, were 
as clean gane as if the cat had lickit the place where 
I saw them.” 

Here Triptolemus paused in his extraordinary 
narration, while the rest of the party looked upon 
each other in surprise, and the Udaller muttered 
to Claud Halcro — “ By all tokens, this must have 
been either the devil or Nicholas Strumpfer ; and 
if it were him, he is more of a goblin than e’er I 
gave him credit for, and shall be apt to rate him 
as such in future.” Then, addressing the Factor, 
he enquired — “ Saw ye nought how this dwarf of 
yours parted company ? ” 

“As I shall answer it, no,” replied Triptole- 
mus, with a cautious look around him, as if daunted 
by the recollection ; “ neither I, nor Baby, who 
had her wits more about her, not having seen this 
unseemly vision, could perceive any way by whilk 
he made evasion. Only Tronda said she saw him 
flee forth of the window of the west roundel of the 
auld house, upon a dragon, as she averred. But, 
as the dragon is held a fabulous animal, I suld pro- 
nounce her averment to rest upon deceptio visus'' 

VOL. II. — 10 


146 


THE EIRATE. 


“ But, may we not ask farther,” said Brenda, sti- 
mulated by curiosity to know as much of her cousin 
Noma’s family as was possible, “ how all this ope- 
rated upon Master Yellowley, so as to occasion his 
being in this place at so unseasonable an hour ? ” 
Seasonable it must he. Mistress Brenda, since 
it brought us into your sweet company,” answered 
Claud Halcro, whose mercurial brain far outstripped 
the slow conceptions of the agriculturist, and who 
became impatient of being so long silent. “ To 
say the truth, it was I, Mistress Brenda, who re- 
commended to our friend the Factor, whose house 
I chanced to call at just after this mischance, (and 
where, by the way, owing doubtless to the hurry 
of their spirits, I was but poorly received,) to make a 
visit to our other friend at Fitful-head, well judging 
from certain points of the story, at which my other 
and more particular friend than either ” (looking at 
Magnus) “ may chance to form a guess, that they 
who break a head are the best to find a plaster. 
And as our friend the Factor scrupled travelling on 
horseback, in respect of some tumbles from our 
ponies ” 

“ Which are incarnate devils,” said Triptolemus, 
aloud, muttering under his breath, “ like every live 
thing that I have found in Zetland.” 

“Well, Fowd,” continued Halcro, “I undertook 
to carry him to Fitful-head in my little boat, which 
Giles and I can manage as if it were an Admiral’s 
barge full manned ; and Master Triptolemus Yel- 
lowley will tell you how seaman-like I piloted him 
to the little haven, within a quarter of a mile of 
Norna’s dwelling.” 

“ I wish to Heaven you had brought me as safe 
back again,” said the Factor. 


THE PIRATE. 


147 


“ Why, to be sure,” replied the minstrel, “ I am, as 
glorious J ohn says, — 

‘ A daring pilot in extremity, 

Pleased with the danger when the waves go high, 

I seek the storm — but, for a calm unfit. 

Will steer too near the sands, to show my wit.’ ” 

“ I showed little wit in intrusting myself to your 
charge,” said Triptolemus ; “ and you still less when 
you upset the boat at the throat of the voe, as you 
call it, when even the poor bairn, that was mair 
than half drowned, told you that you were carrying 
too much sail ; and then ye wad fasten the rape to 
the bit stick on the boat-side, that ye might have 
time to play on the fiddle.” 

“ What ! ” said the Udaller, “ make fast the sheets 
to the thwart ? a most unseasonable practice, Claud 
Halcro.” 

“ And sae came of it,” replied the agriculturist ; 
“ for the neist blast (and we are never lang with- 
out ane in these parts) whomled us as a gudewife 
would whomle a bowie, and ne’er a thing wad Mais- 
ter Halcro save but his fiddle. The puir bairn swam 
out like a water-spaniel, and I swattered hard for 
my life, wi’ the help of ane of the oars ; and here 
we are, comfortless creatures, that, till a good wind 
blew you here, had naething to eat but a mouthful 
of Norway rusk, that has mair sawdust than rye- 
meal in it, and tastes liker turpentine than any 
thing else.” 

“ I thought we heard you very merry,” said 
Brenda, “as we came along the beach.” 

“Ye heard a fiddle. Mistress Brenda,” said the 
Factor ; “ and maybe ye may think there can be 
nae dearth, miss, where that is skirling. But tlien 


148 


THE PIRATE. 


it was Maister Claud Halcro’s fiddle, whilk, I am 
api to think, wad skirl at his father’s deathbed, or 
at his ain, sae lang as his fingers could pinch the 
thairni. And it was nae sma’ aggravation to my 
misfortune to have him humming a’ sorts of springs, 
— Norse and Scots, Highland and Lawland, Eng- 
lish and Italian, in my lug, as if nothing had hap- 
pened that was amiss, and we all in such stress and 
perplexity.” 

“ Why, I told you sorrow would never right the 
boat. Factor,” said the thoughtless minstrel, “ and 
I did my best to make you merry ; if I failed, it was 
neither my fault nor my fiddle’s. I have drawn the 
bow across it before glorious John Dryden himself.” 

“ I will hear no stories about glorious John. Dry- 
den,” answered the Udaller, who dreaded Halcro’s 
narratives as much as Triptolemus did his music, — 
“ I will hear nought of him, but one story to every 
three bowls of punch, — it is our old paction, you 
know. But tell me, instead, what said Norna to 
you about your errand ? ” 

“ Ay, there was anither fine upshot,” said Master 
Yellowley. “ She wadna look at us, or listen to us ; 
only «he bothered our acquaintance. Master Halcro 
here, who thought he could have sae much to say 
wi’ her, with about a score of questions about your 
family and household estate. Master Magnus Troil ; 
and when she had gotten a’ she wanted out of him, 
I thought she wad hae dung him ower the craig, like 
an empty peacod.” 

“ And for yourself ? ” said the Udaller. 

“ She wadna listen to my story, nor hear sae much 
as a word that I had to say,” answered Triptolemus ; 
“ and sae much for them that seek to witches and 
familiar spirits ! ” 


THE PIRATE. 


149 


You needed not to have had recourse to Norna’s 
wisdom, Master Factor,” said Minna, not unwilling, 
perhaps, to stop his railing against the friend who 
had so lately rendered her service ; “ the youngest 
child in Orkney could have told you, that fairy 
treasures, if they are not wisely employed for the 
good of others, as well as of those to whom they are 
imparted, do not dwell long with their possessors.” 

• “ Your humble servant to command. Mistress 
Minnie,” said Triptolemus ; “ I thank ye for the 
hint, — and I am blithe that you have gotten your 
wits — I beg pardon, I meant your health — into the 
barn-yard again. For the treasure, I neither used 
nor abused it, — they that live in the house with my 
sister Baby wad find it hard to do either ! — and as 
for speaking of it, whilk they say muckle offends 
them whom we in Scotland call Good Neighbours, 
and you call Drows, the face of the auld Norse 
kings on the coins themselves, might have spoken 
as much about it as ever I did.” 

“ The Factor,” said Claud Halcro, not unwilling to 
seize the opportunity of revenging himself on Trip- 
tolemus, for disgracing his seamanship and dispar- 
aging his music, — “ The Factor was so scrupulous, 
as to keep the thing quiet even from his master, the 
Lord Chamberlain ; but, now that the matter has 
ta’en wind, he is likely to have to account to his 
master for that which is no longer in his possession ; 
for the Lord Chamberlain will be in no hurry, I 
think, to believe the story of the dwarf. Neither do 
I think” (winking to the Udaller) “that Norna 
gave credit to a word of so odd a story ; and I dare 
say that was the reason that she received us, I must 
needs say, in a very dry manner. T rather think she 
knew that Triptolemus, our friend here, had found 


150 


THE PIRATE. 


some other hiding-hole for the money, and that the 
story of the goblin was all his own invention. For 
my part, I will never believe there was such a dwarf 
to be seen as the creature Master Yellowley describes, 
until I set my own eyes on him.” 

Then you may do so at this moment,” said the 
Factor ; ‘‘ for, by ,” (he muttered a deep as- 

severation as he sprung on his feet in great horror,) 
“ there the creature is ! ” 

All turned their eyes in the direction in which 
he pointed, and saw the hideous misshapen figure 
of Pacolet, with his eyes fixed and glaring at them 
through the smoke. He had stolen upon their con- 
versation unperceived, until the Factor’s eye lighted 
upon him in the manner we have described. There 
was something so ghastly in his sudden and unex- 
pected appearance, that even the Udaller, to whom 
his form was familiar, could not help starting. 
Neither pleased with himself for having testified 
this degree of emotion, however slight, nor with the 
dwarf who had given cause to it, Magnus asked 
him sharply, what was his business there ? Paco- 
let replied by producing a letter, which he gave 
to the Udaller, uttering a sound resembling the 
word Shogh.'^ 

“That is the Highlandman’s language,” said the 
Udaller — “ didst thou learn that, Nicholas, when 
you lost your own ? ” 

Pacolet nodded, and signed to him to read his 
letter. 

“ That is no such easy matter by fire-light, my 
good friend,” replied the Udaller; “but it may con- 
cern Minna, and we must try.” 

Brenda offered her assistance, but the Udaller an- 

1 In Gaelic, there. 


THE PIRATE. 


iSi 

swered, “ No, no, my girl, — Noma’s letters must be 
read by those they are written to. Give the knave, 
Strumpfer, a drop of brandy the while, though he 
little deserves it at my hands, considering the grin 
with which he sent the good Nantz down the crag 
this morning, as if it had been as much ditch-water.” 

“Will you be this honest gentleman’s cup-bearer 
— his Ganymede, friend Yellowley, or shall I ? ” 
said Claud Halcro aside to the Factor ; while Mag- 
nus Troil, having carefully wiped his spectacles, 
which he produced from a large copper case, had 
disposed them on his nose, and was studying the 
epistle of Norna. 

“ I would not touch him, or go near him, for all 
the Carse of Gowrie,” said the Factor, whose fears 
were by no means entirely removed, though he saw 
that the dwarf was received as a creature of flesh 
and blood by the rest of the company ; “ but I pray 
you to ask him what he has done with my horn 
of coins ? ” 

The dwarf, who heard the question, threw back 
his head, and displayed his enormous throat, point- 
ing to it with his finger. 

“ Nay, if he has swallowed them, there is no 
more to be said,” replied the Factor ; “ only I hope he 
will thrive on them as a cow on wet clover. He is 
dame Norna’s servant it’s like, — such man, such 
mistress ! But if theft and witchcraft are to go un- 
punished in this land, my lord must find another 
factor ; for I have been used to live in a country 
where men’s worldly gear was keepit from infang 
and outfang thief, as well as their immortal souls 
from the claws of the deil and his cummers, — sain 
and save us ! ” 

The agriculturist was perhaps the less reserv^ed 


152 


THE PIRATE. 


in expressing his complaints, that the Udaller was 
for the present out of hearing, having drawn Claud 
Halcro apart into another corner of the hut. 

“ And tell me,” said he, “ friend Halcro, what 
errand took thee to Sumburgh, since I reckon it 
was scarce the mere pleasure of sailing in partner- 
ship with yonder barnacle ? ” 

“ In faith, Fowd,” said the bard, and if you will 
have the truth, I went to speak to Norna on your 
affairs.” 

“ On my affairs ? ” replied the Udaller; “ on what 
affairs of mine ? ” 

“ Just touching your daughter’s health. I heard 
that Norna refused your message, and would not see 
Eric Scambester. Now, -said I to myself, I have 
scarce joyed in meat, or drink, or music, or aught 
else, since Jarto Minna has been so ill ; and I may 
say, literally as well as figuratively, that my day 
and night have been made sorrowful to me. In 
short, I thought 1 might have some more interest 
with old Norna than another, as scalds and wise 
women were always accounted something akin ; and 
I undertook the journey with the hope to be of 
some use to my old friend and his lovely daughter.” 

“ And it was most kindly done of you, good 
warm-hearted Claud,” said the Udaller, shaking him 
warmly by the hand, — “I ever said you showed 
the good old Norse heart amongst all thy fiddling 
and thy folly. — Tut, man, never wince for the mat- 
ter, but be blithe that thy heart is better than thy 
head. Well, — and I warrant you got no answer 
from Norna ? ” 

“ None to purpose,” replied Claud Halcro ; “ but 
she held me close to question about Minna’s illness, 
too, — and I told her how I had met her abroad the 


THE PIRATE. 


153 


other morning in no very good weather, and how 
her sister Brenda said she had hurt her foot ; — in 
short, I told her all and every thing I knew.” 

“And something more besides, it would seem,” 
said the Udaller ; “ for I, at least, never heard be- 
fore that Minna had hurt herself.” 

“ O, a scratch ! a mere scratch ! ” said the old 
man ; “ but I was startled about it — terrified lest it 
had been the bite of a dog, or some hurt from a 
venomous thing. I told all to Noriia, however.” 

“ And what,” answered the Udaller, “ did she say, 
in the way of reply ? ” 

“ She bade me begone about my business, and told 
me that the issue would be known at the Kirkwall 
Fair ; and said just tlie like to this noodle of a Fac- 
tor — it was all that either of us got for our labour,” 
said Halcro. 

“ That is strange,” said Magnus. “ My kins- 
woman writes me in this letter not to fail going 
thither with my daughters. This Fair runs strongly 
in her head ; — one would think she intended to 
lead the market, and yet she has nothing to buy or 
to sell there that I know of. And so you came away 
as wise as you went, and swamped your boat at the 
mouth of the voe?” 

“ Why, how could I help it ? ” said the poet. “ I 
had set the boy to steer, and as the flaw came sud- 
denly off shore, I could not let go the tack and play 
on the Addle at the same time. But it is all well 
enough, — salt-water never harmed Zetlander, so as 
he could get out of it ; and, as Heaven would have 
it, we were within man’s depth of the shore, and 
chancing to find this skio, we should have done well 
enough, with shelter and fire, and are much better 
than well with your good cheer and good company. 


54 


THE PIRATE. 


But it wears late, and Night and Day must be both 
as sleepy as old Midnight can make them. There 
is an inner crib here, where the fishers slept, — 
somewhat fragrant with the smell of their fish, but 
that is wholesome. They shall bestow themselves 
there, with the help of what cloaks you have, and 
then we will have one cup of brandy, and one stave 
of glorious John, or some little trifle of my own, 
and so sleep as sound as cobblers.” 

“ Two glasses of brandy, if you please,” said the 
Udaller, “if our stores do not run dry; but not 
a single stave of glorious John, or of any one else 
to-night” 

And this being arranged and executed agreeably 
to the peremptory pleasure of the Udaller, the 
whole party consigned themselves to slumber for 
the night, and on the next day departed for their 
several habitations, Claud Halcro having previ- 
ously arranged with the Udaller that he would 
accompany him and his daughters on their proposed 
visit to Kirkwall. 


CHAPTEK XL 


“ By this hand, thou think’st me as far in the devil’s book as 
thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and persistency. Let the end 
try the man. . . . Albeit I could tell to thee, (as to one it pleases 
me, for fault of a better, to call my friend,) I could be sad, and 
sad indeed too.” 

Henry IV., Part 2d. 

We must now change the scene from Zetland 
to Orkney, and request our readers to accompany 
us to the ruins of an elegant, though ancient struc- 
ture, called the Earl’s Palace. These remains, 
though much dilapidated, still exist in the neigh- 
bourhood of the massive and venerable pile, which 
Norwegian devotion dedicated to Saint Magnus 
the Martyr, and, being contiguous to the Bishop’s 
Palace, which is also ruinous, the place is impres- 
sive, as exhibiting vestiges of the mutations both 
in Church and State which have affected Orkney, 
as well as countries more exposed to such convul- 
sions. Several parts of these ruinous buildings 
might be selected (under suitable modifications) as 
the model of a Gothic mansion, provided architects 
would be contented rather to imitate what is really 
beautiful in that species of building, than to make 
a medley of the caprices of the order, confounding 
the military, ecclesiastical, and domestic styles of 
all ages at random, with additional fantasies and 
combinations of their own device, all formed out 
of the builder’s brain.” 

The Earl’s Palace forms three sides of an oblong 
square, and has, even in its ruins, the air of an ele- 


156 


THE PIRATE. 


gant yet massive structure, uniting, as was usual in 
the residence of feudal princes, the character of a 
palace and of a castle. A great banqueting-hall, 
communicating with several large rounds, or pro- 
jecting turret-rooms, and having at either end an 
immense chimney, testifies the ancient Northern 
hospitality of the Earls of Orkney, and communi- 
cates, almost in the modern fashion, with a gallery, 
or withdrawing-room, of corresponding dimensions, 
and having, like the hall, its projecting turrets. The 
lordly hall itself is lighted by a fine Gothic window 
of shafted stone at one end, and is entered by a spa- 
cious and elegant staircase, consisting of three flights 
of stone steps. The exterior ornaments and pro- 
portions of the ancient building are also very hand- 
some ; but, being totally unprotected, this remnant 
of the pomp and grandeur of Earls, who assumed 
the license as well as the dignity of petty sove- 
reigns, is now fast crumbling to decay, and has suf- 
fered considerably since the date of our story. 

With folded arms and downcast looks the pirate 
Cleveland was pacing slowly the ruined hall which 
we have just described ; a place of retirement which 
he had probably chosen because it was distant from 
public resort. His dress was considerably altered 
from that which he usually wore in Zetland, and 
seemed a sort of uniform, richly laced, and exhibit- 
ing no small quantity of embroidery : a hat with a 
plume, and a small sword very handsomely mounted, 
then the constant companion of every one who as- 
sumed the rank of a gentleman, showed his preten- 
sions to that character. But if his exterior was so 
far improved, it seemed to be otherwise with his 
health and spirits. He was pale, and had lost both 
the fire of his eye and the vivacity of his step, 


THE PIRATE. 


157 


and his whole appearance indicated melancholy 
of mind, or suffering of body, or a combination of 
both evils. 

As Cleveland thus paced these ancient ruins, a 
young man, of a light and slender form, whose showy 
dress seemed to have been studied with care, yet 
exhibited more extravagance than judgment or taste, 
whose manner was a janty affectation of the free 
and easy rake of the period, and the expression of 
whose countenance was lively, with a cast of effront- 
ery, tripped up the staircase, entered the hall, and 
presented himself to Cleveland, who merely nodded 
to him, and pulling his hat deeper over his brows, 
resumed his solitary and discontented promenade. 

The stranger adjusted his own hat, nodded in 
return, took snuff, with the air of a petit maitre, from 
a richly chased gold box, offered it to Cleveland as 
he passed, and being repulsed rather coldly, replaced 
the box in his pocket, folded his arms in his turn, 
and stood looking with fixed attention on his mo- 
tions whose solitude he had interrupted. At length 
Cleveland stopped short, as if impatient of being 
longer the subject of his observation, and said ab- 
ruptly, “Why can I not be left alone for half an 
hour, and what the devil is it that you want ? ” 

“ I am glad you spoke first,” answered the stran- 
ger, carelessly ; “ I was determined to know whether 
you were Clement Cleveland, or Cleveland’s ghost, 
and they say ghosts never take the first word, so 
I now set it down for yourself in life and limb ; 
and here is a fine old hurly-house you have found 
out for an owl to hide himself in at mid-day, or a 
ghost to revisit the pale glimpses of the moon, as 
the divine Shakspeare says.” 

“ Well, well,” answered Cleveland, abruptly, 


/58 


THE PIRATE. 


“ your jest is made, and now let us have your 
earnest.” 

“ In earnest, then. Captain Cleveland,’ ’ replied his 
companion, “ I think you know me for your friend.” 

“ I am content to suppose so,” said Cleveland. 

“ It is more than supposition,” replied the young 
man ; “ I have proved it — proved it both here and 
elsewhere.” 

“ Well, well,” answered Cleveland, I admit 
you have been always a friendly fellow — and what 
then?” 

“ Well, well — and what then ? ” replied the other ; 
this is but a brief way of thanking folk. Look you. 
Captain, here is Benson, Barlowe, Dick Fletcher, 
and a few others of us who wished you well, have 
kept your old comrade Captain Goffe in these seas 
upon the look-out for you, when he and Hawkins, 
and the greater part of the ship’s company, would 
fain have been down on the Spanish Main, and 
at the old trade.” 

“ And I wish to God that you had all gone about your 
business,” said Cleveland, “ and left me to my fate.” 

“ Which would have been to be informed against 
and hanged. Captain, the first time that any of these 
Dutch or English rascals, whom you have lightened 
of their cargoes, came to set their eyes upon you ; 
and no place more likely to meet with seafaring 
men, than in these Islands. And here, to screen you 
from such a risk, we have been wasting our precious 
time, till folk are grown very peery ; and when we 
have no more goods or money to spend amongst 
them, the fellows will be for grabbing the ship.” 

“ Well, then, why do you not sail off without me ? ” 
said Cleveland — “ there has been fair partition, and 
all have had their share ^ let all do as they like. 


THE PIRATE. 


159 

I have lost my ship, and having been once a Cap- 
tain, I will not go to sea under command of Goffe 
or any other man. Besides, you know well enough 
that both Hawkins and he bear me ill-will for keep- 
ing them from sinking the Spanish brig, with the 
poor devils of negroes on board.” 

“Why, what the foul fiend is the matter with 
thee?” said his companion; “are you Clement Cleve- 
land, our own old true-hearted Clem of the Cleugh, 
and do you talk of being afraid of Hawkins and 
Goffe, and a score of such fellows, when you have 
myself, and Barlowe, and Dick Fletcher at your 
back ? When was it we deserted you, either in 
council or in fight, that you should be afraid of our 
flinching now? And as for serving under Goffe, I 
hope it is no new thing for gentlemen of fortune 
who are going on the account, to change a Captain 
now and then ? Let us alone for that, — Captain 
you shall be ; for death rock me asleep if I serve un- 
der that fellow Goffe, who is as very a bloodhound 
as ever sucked bitch ! — Ho, no, I thank you — my 
Captain must have a little of the gentleman about 
him, howsoever. Besides, you know, it was you who 
first dipped my hands in the dirty water, and turned 
me from a stroller by land, to a rover by sea.” 

“ Alas, poor Bunce ! ” said Cleveland, “ you owe 
me little thanks for that service.” 

“ That is as you take it,” replied Bunce ; “ for my 
part, I see no harm in levying contributions on the 
public either one way or t’other. But I wish you 
would forget that name of Bunce, and call me Al- 
tamont, as I have often desired you to do. I hope 
a gentleman of the roving trade has as good a right 
to have an alias as a stroller, and I never stepped on 
the boards but what I was Altamont at the least.” 


i6o 


THE PIRATE. 


“Well, then, Jack Altamont,” relied Cleveland, 
“ since Altamont is the word ” 

“Yes, but. Captain, Jack is not the word, though 
Altamont be so. Jack Altamont ? — why, ’tis a 
velvet coat with paper lace — Let it be Frederick, 
Captain; Frederick Altamont is all of a piece.” 

“Frederick be it, then, with all my heart,” said 
Cleveland ; “ and pray tell me, which of your names 
will sound best at the head of the Last Speech, 
Confession, and Dying Words of John Bunce, alias 
Frederick Altamont, who was this morning hanged 
at Execution-dock, for the crime of Piracy upon the 
High Seas ? ” 

“ Faith, I cannot answer that question, without 
another can of grog. Captain; so if you will go down 
with me to Bet Haldane’s on the quay, I will bestow 
some thought on the matter, with the help of a right 
pipe of Trinidado. We will have the gallon bowl 
filled with the best stuff you ever tasted, and I know 
some smart wenches who will help us to drain it. 
But you shake your head — you’re not i’ the vein ? 
— Well, then, I will stay with you; for by this 
hand, Clem, you shift me not off. Only I will ferret 
you out of this burrow of old stones, and carry you 
into sunshine and fair air. — Where shall we go ? ” 

“Where you will,” said Cleveland, “so that you 
keep out of the way of our own rascals, and all 
others.” 

“ Why, then,” replied Bunce, “ you and I will go 
up to the Hill of Whitford, which overlooks the 
town, and walk together as gravely and honestly as 
a pair of well-employed attorneys.” 

As they proceeded to leave the ruinous castle, 
Bunce, turning back to look at it, thus addressed 
his companion : 


THE PIRATE. 


i6i 


“ Hark ye, Captain, dost thou know who last in • 
habited this old cockloft ? ” 

“ An Earl of the Orkneys, they say,” replied 
Cleveland. 

“ And are you avised what death he died of ? •’ 
said Bunce ; “ for I have heard that it was of a tight 
neck-collar — a hempen fever, or the like.” 

“ The people here do say,” replied Cleveland, “ that 
his Lordship, some hundred years ago, had the mis- 
hap to become acquainted with the nature of a loop 
and a leap in the air.” 

“ Why, la ye there now ! ” said Bunce ; “ there 
was some credit in being hanged in those days, and 
in such worshipful company. And what might his 
lordship have done to deserve such promotion ? ” 

“ Plundered the liege subjects, they say,” replied 
Cleveland ; “ slain and wounded them, fired upon 
his Majesty’s flag, and so forth.” 

‘‘Hear akin to a gentleman rover, then,” said 
Bunce, making a theatrical bow towards the old 
building ; “ and, therefore, my most potent, grave, 
and reverend Signior Earl, I crave leave to call 
you my loving cousin, and bid you most heartily 
adieu. I leave you in the good company of rats 
and mice, and so forth, and I carry with me an 
honest gentleman, who, having of late had no more 
heart than a mouse, is now desirous to run away 
from his profession and friends like a rat, and 
would therefore be a most fitting denizen of your 
Earlship’s palace.” 

“ I would advise you not to speak so loud, my 
good friend Frederick Altamont, or John Bunce,” 
said Cleveland ; “ when you were on the stage, you 
might safely rant as loud as you listed ; but, in your 
present profession, of which you are so fond, every 

VOL. U. — 11 


<62 


THE PIRATE. 


man speaks under correction of the yard-arm, and a 
running noose.” 

The comrades left the little town of Kirkwall in 
silence, and ascended the Hill of Whitford, which 
raises its brow of dark heath, uninterrupted by en- 
closures or cultivation of any kind, to the northward 
of the ancient Burgh of Saint Magnus. The plain 
at the foot of the hill was already occupied by num- 
bers of persons who were engaged in making prepar- 
ations for the Fair of Saint 011a, to be held upon the 
ensuing day, and which forms a general rendezvous 
to all the neighbouring islands of Orkney, and is 
even frequented by many persons from the more 
distant archipelago of Zetland. It is, in the words 
of the Proclamation, “ a free Mercat and Fair, holden 
at the good Burgh of Kirkwall on the third of August, 
being Saint Olla’s day,” and continuing for an indefi- 
nite space thereafter, extending from three days to a 
week, and upwards. The fair is of great antiquity, 
and derives its name from Olaus, Olave, Ollaw, the 
celebrated Monarch of Norway, who, rather by the 
edge of his sword than any milder argument, intro- 
duced Christianity into those isles, and was re- 
spected as the patron of Kirkwall some time before 
he shared that honour with Saint Magnus the 
Martyr. 

It was no part of Cleveland’s purpose to mingle 
in the busy scene which was here going on ; and, 
turning their route to the left, they soon ascended 
into undisturbed solitude, save where the grouse, 
more plentiful in Orkney, perhaps, than in any other 
part of the British dominions, rose in covey, and 
went off before them.^ Having continued to ascend 

1 It is very curious that the grouse, plenty in Orkney as the 
text declares, should be totally unknown in the neighbouring 


THE PIRATE. 


163 


till they had wellnigh reached the summit of the 
conical hill, both turned round, as with one consent, 
to look at and admire the prospect beneath. 

The lively bustle which extended between the 
foot of the hill and the town, gave life and variety 
to that part of the scene ; then was seen the town 
itself, out of which arose, like a great mass, superior 
in proportion as it seemed to the whole burgh, the 
ancient Cathedral of Saint Magnus, of the heaviest 
order of Gothic architecture, but grand, solemn, and 
stately, the work of a distant age, and of a power- 
ful hand. The quay, with the shipping, lent addi- 
tional vivacity to the scene ; and not only the whole 
beautiful bay, which lies betwixt the promontories 
of Inganess and Quanterness, at the bottom of which 
Kirkwall is situated, but all the sea, so far as vis- 
ible, and in particular the whole strait betwixt the 
island of Shapinsha and that called Pomona, or the 
Mainland, was covered and enlivened by a variety 
of boats and small vessels, freighted from distant 
islands to convey passengers or merchandise to the 
Fair of Saint 011a. 

Having attained the point by which this fair and 
busy prospect was most completely commanded, 
each of the strangers, in seaman fashion, had re- 
course to his spy-glass, to assist the naked eye in 
considering the bay of Kirkwall, and the numerous 
vessels by which it was traversed. But the atten- 
tion of the two companions seemed to be arrested 
by different objects. That of Bunce, or Altamont, 
as he chose to call himself, was riveted to the armed 
sloop, where, conspicuous by her square rigging 
and length of beam, with the English jack and 

archipelago of Zetland, which is only about sixty miles distance, 
with the Fair Isle as a step between. 


THE EIRATE. 


164 

pennon, which they had the precaution to keep fly- 
ing, she lay among the merchant vessels, as distin- 
guished from them by the trim neatness of her ap- 
pearance, as a trained soldier amongst a crowd of 
clowns. 

“ Yonder she lies,” said Bunce ; “ I wish to God 
she was in the bay of Honduras — you Captain, on 
the quarter-deck, I your lieutenant, and Fletcher 
quarter-master, and fifty stout fellows under us — I 
should not wish to see these blasted heaths and 
rocks again for a while ! — And Captain you- shall 
soon be. The old brute Gofie gets drunk as a lord 
every day, swaggers, and shoots, and cuts, among 
the crew ; and, besides, he has quarrelled with the 
people here so damnably, that they will scarce let 
water or provisions go on board of us, and we ex- 
pect an open breach every day.” 

As Bunce received no answer, he turned short 
round on his companion, and, perceiving his atten- 
tion otherwise engaged, exclaimed, — “ What the 
devil is the matter with you ? or what can you see 
in all that trumpery small-craft, which is only loaded 
with stock-fish, and ling, and smoked geese, and 
tubs of butter that is worse than tallow ? — the car- 
goes of the whole lumped together would not be 
worth the flash of a pistol. — Ho, no, give me such 
a chase as we might see from the mast-head off the 
island of Trinidado. Your Don, rolling as deep 
in the water as a grampus, deep-loaden with rum, 
sugar, and bales of tobacco, and all the rest ingots, 
moidores, and gold dust ; then set all sail, clear the 
deck, stand to quarters, up with the Jolly Roger ^ 

^ The pirates gave this name to the black flag, which, with 
many horrible devices to enhance its terrors, was their favourite 
ensign. 


THE PIKATE. 165 

- — we near her — we make her out to be well 
manned and armed ” 

'‘Twenty guns on her lower deck,” said Cleve- 
land. 

“Forty, if you will,” retorted Bunce, “and we 
have but ten mounted — never mind. The Don 
blazes away — never mind yet, my brave lads — run 
her alongside, and on board with you — to work, 
with your grenadoes, your cutlasses, pole-axes, and 
pistols — The Don cries Misericordia, and we share 
the cargo without co licencio, Seignior ! ” 

“ By my faith,” said Cleveland, “ thou takest so 
kindly to the trade, that all the world may see that 
no honest man was spoiled when you were made a 
pirate. But you shall not prevail on me to go far- 
ther in the devil’s road with you ; for you know 
yourself that what is got over his back is spent — 
you wot how. In a week, or a month at most, the 
rum and the sugar are out, the bales of tobacco 
have become smoke, the moidores, ingots, and gold 
dust, have got out of our hands, into those of the 
quiet, honest, conscientious folks, who dwell at Port 
Koyal and elsewhere — wink hard on our trade as 
long as we have money, but not a jot beyond. Then 
we have cold looks, and it may be a hint is given to 
the Judge Marshal ; for, when our pockets are worth 
nothing, our honest friends, rather than want, will 
make money upon our heads. Then comes a high 
gallows and a short halter, and so dies the Gentle- 
man Eover. I tell thee, I will leave this trade ; 
and, when I turn my glass from one of these barks 
and boats to another, there is not the worst of them 
which I would not row for life, rather than conti- 
nue to be what I have been. These poor men make 
the sea a means of honest livelihood and friendly 


i66 


THE PIRATE. 


communication between shore and shore, for the 
mutual benefit of the inhabitants ; but we have 
made it a road to the ruin of others, and to our own 
destruction here and in eternity. — I am determined 
to turn honest man, and use this life no longer ! ” 

“ And where will your honesty take up its abode, 
if it please you ? ” said Bunce. — “ You have broken 
the laws of every nation, and the hand of the law 
will detect and crush you wherever you may take 
refuge. — Cleveland, I speak to you more seriously 
than I am wont to do. I have had my reflections, 
too ; and they have been bad enough, though they 
lasted but a few minutes, to spoil me weeks of 
joviality. But here is the matter, — what can we 
do but go on as we have done, unless we have a 
direct purpose of adorning the yard-arm ? ” 

“We may claim the benefit of the proclamation 
to those of our sort who come in and surrender,” 
said Cleveland. 

“ Umph ! ” answered his companion, dryly ; “ the 
date of that day of grace has been for some time 
over, and they may take the penalty or grant the 
pardon at their pleasure. Were I you, I would not 
put my neck in such a venture.” 

“ Why, others have been admitted but lately to 
favour, and why should not I ? ” said Cleveland. 

“Ay,” replied his associate, “Harry Glasby and 
some others have been spared ; but Glasby did what 
was called good service, in betraying his comrades, 
and retaking the Jolly Fortune; and that I think 
you would scorn, even to be revenged of the brute 
Goffe yonder.” 

“ I would die a thousand times sooner,” said 
Cleveland. 

“I will be sworn for it,” said Bunce; “and 


THE PIRATE. 


167 


the others were forecastle fellows — petty larceny 
rogues, scarce worth the hemp it would have cost 
to hang them. But your name has stood too high 
amongst the gentlemen of fortune for you to get off 
so easily. You are the prime buck of the herd, 
and will be marked accordingly.” 

“ And why so, I pray you ? ” said Cleveland ; 
“ you know well enough my aim. Jack.” 

“ Frederick, if you please,” said Bunce. 

“ The devil take your folly ! — Prithee keep thy 
wit, and let us be grave for a moment.” 

“ For a moment — be it so,” said Bunce; “but I 
feel the spirit of Altamont coming fast upon me, — 
I have been a grave man for ten minutes already.” 

“ Be so then for a little longer,” said Cleveland ; 
“ i know. Jack, that you really love me ; and, since 
we have come thus far in this talk, I will trust you 
entirely. Now tell me, why should I be refused the 
benefit of this gracious proclamation ? I have borne 
a rough outside, as thou knowest ; but, in time of 
need, I can show the numbers of lives which I have 
been the means of saving, the property which I have 
restored to those who owned it, when, without my 
intercession, it would have been wantonly destroyed. 
In short, Bunce, I can show ” 

“ That you were as gentle a thief as Robin Hood 
himself,” said Bunce ; “ and, for that reason, I, 
Fletcher, and the better sort among us, love you, 
as one who saves the character of us Gentlemen 
Rovers from utter reprobation. — Well, suppose 
your pardon made out, what are you to do next ? — 
what class in society will receive you? — with whom 
will you associate? Old Drake, in Queen Bess’s 
time, could plunder Peru and Mexico without a line 
of commission to’ show for it, and, blessed be her 


68 


THE pirate. 


memory ! he was knighted for it on his return. And 
there was Hal Morgan, the Welshman, nearer our 
time, in the days of merry King Charles, brought 
all his gettings home, had his estate and his country- 
house, and who but he ? But that is all ended now 

— once a pirate, and an outcast for ever. The poor 
devil may go and live, shunned and despised by 
every one, in some hbscure seaport, with such part 
of his guilty earnings as courtiers and clerks leave 
him — for pardons do not pass the seals for nothing; 

— and, when he takes his walk along the pier, if a 
stranger asks, who is the down-looking, swarthy, 
melancholy man, for whom all make way, as if he 
brought the plague in his person, the answer shall 
be, that is such a one, the pardoned pirate ! — No 
honest man will speak to him, no woman of repute 
will give him her hand.” 

“Your picture is too highly coloured. Jack,” said 
Cleveland, suddenly interrupting his friend ; “ there 
are women — there is one at least, that would be 
true to her lover, even if he were what you have 
described.” 

Bunce was silent for a space, and looked fixedly 
at his friend. “ By my soul ! ” he said, at length, “ I 
begin to think myself a conjurer. Unlikely as it all 
was, I could not help suspecting from the beginning 
that there was a girl in the case. Why, this is 
worse than Prince Volscius in love, ha ! ha ! ha ! ” 

“ Laugh as you will,” said Cleveland, “ it is true ; 

— there is a maiden who is contented to love me, 
pirate as I am ; and I will fairly own to you. Jack, 
that, though I have often at times detested our 
roving life, and myself for following it, yet I doubt 
if I could have found resolution to make the break 
which I have now resolved on, but for her sake.” 


THE PIRATE. 


169 


“ Why, then, God-a-mercy ! ” replied Bunce, 
there is no speaking sense to a madman ; and love 
in one of our trade. Captain, is little better than 
lunacy. The girl must be a rare creature, for a wise 
man to risk hanging for her. But, harkye, may she 
not be a little touched, as well as yourself ? — and 
is it not sympathy that has done it ? She cannot be 
one of our ordinary cockatrices, but a girl of con- 
duct and character.” 

“Both are as undoubted as that she is the most 
beautiful and bewitching creature whom the eye 
ever opened upon,” answered Cleveland. 

“ And she loves thee, knowing thee, most noble 
Captain, to be a commander among those gentlemen 
of fortune, whom the vulgar call pirates ? ” 

“ Even so — lam assured of it,” said Cleveland. 
“Why, then,” answered Bunce, “she is. either 
mad in good earnest, as I said before, or she does 
not know what a pirate is.” 

“ You are right in the last point,” replied Cleve- 
land. “ She has been bred in such remote simpli- 
city, and utter ignorance of what is evil, that she 
compares our occupation with that of the old Norse- 
men, who swept sea and haven with their victorious 
galleys, established colonies, conquered countries, 
and took the name of Sea-Kings.” 

“ And a better one it is than that of pirate, and 
comes much to the same purpose, I dare say,” said 
Bunce. “ But this must be a mettled wench ! — 
why did you not bring her aboard? methinks it 
was pity to baulk her fancy.” 

“And do you think,” said Cleveland, “that I 
could so utterly play the part of a fallen spirit as 
to avail myself of her enthusiastic error, and bring 
an angel of beauty and innocence acquainted with 


170 


THE PIRATE. 


such a hell as exists on board of yonder infernal 
ship of ours ? — I tell you, my friend, that, were all 
my fornier sins doubled in weight and in dye, such 
a villainy would have outglared and outweighed 
them all.” 

“Why, then. Captain Cleveland,” said his con- 
fident, “methinks it was but a fool’s part to come 
hither at all. The news must one day have gone 
abroad, that the celebrated pirate Captain Cleveland, 
with his good sloop the Revenge, had been lost on 
the Mainland of Zetland, and all hands perished; 
so you would have remained hid both from friend 
and enemy, and might have married your pretty 
Zetlander, and converted your sash and scarf into 
fishing-nets, and your cutlass into a harpoon, and 
swept the seas for fish instead of florins.” 

“ And so I had determined,” said the Captain ; 
“ but a dagger, as they call them here, like a med- 
dling, peddling thief as he is, brought down intelli- 
gence to Zetland of your lying here, and I was fain 
to set off, to see if you were the consort of whom I 
had told them, long before I thought of leaving the 
roving trade.” 

“ Ay,” said Bunce, “ and so far you judged well. 
For, as you had heard of our being at Kirkwall, so 
we should have soon learned that you were at Zet- 
land ; and some of us for friendship, some for hatred, 
and some for fear of your playing Harry Glasby 
upon us, would have come down for the purpose of 
getting you into our company again.” 

“ I suspected as much,” said the Captain, “ and 
therefore was fain to decline the courteous offer of 
a friend, who proposed to bring me here about this 
time. Besides, Jack, I recollected, that, as you say, 
my pardon will not pass the seals without money, 


THE PIRATE. 


171 

my own was waxing low — no wonder, thou knowest 
I was never a churl of it — And so ” 

“And so you came for your share of the cobs?” 
replied his friend — “ It was wisely done ; and we 
shared honourably — so far Goffe has acted up to 
articles, it must be allowed. But keep your purpose 
of leaving him close in your breast, for I dread his 
playing you some dog’s trick or other ; for he cer- 
tainly thought himself sure of your share, and will 
hardly forgive your coming alive to disappoint 
him.” 

“ I fear him not,” said Cleveland, “ and he knows 
that well. I would I were as well clear of the con- 
sequences of having been his comrade, as I hold 
myself to be of all those which may attend his ill- 
will. Another unhappy job I may he troubled with 
— I hurt a young fellow, who has been my plague 
for some time, in an unhappy brawl that chanced 
the morning I left Zetland.” 

“Is he dead?” asked Bunce: “It is a more seri- 
ous question here, than it would be on the Grand 
Caimains or the Bahama Isles, where a brace or two 
of fellows may be shot in a morning, and no more 
heard of, or asked about them, than if they were so 
many wood-pigeons. But here it may be otherwise ; 
so I hope you have not made your friend immortal.” 

“I hope not,” said the Captain, “though my 
anger has been fatal to those who have given me 
less provocation. To say the truth, I was sorry 
for the lad notwithstanding, and especially as I was 
forced to leave him in mad keeping.” 

“In mad keeping?” said Bunce; “why, what 
means that?” 

“You shall hear,” replied his friend. “In the 
first place, you are to know, this young man came 


172 


THE PIRATE. 


suddenly on me while I was trying to gain MinnaV 
ear for a private interview before I set sail, that I 
might explain my purpose to her. Now, to be 
broken in on by the accursed rudeness of this 
young fellow at such a moment” . 

“The interruption deserved death,” said Bunce, 
“ by all the laws of love and honour ! ” 

“A truce with your ends of plays. Jack, and 
listen one moment. — The brisk youth thought 
proper to retort, when I commanded him to be 
gone. I am not, thou kn'owest, very patient, and 
enforced my commands with a blow, which he re- 
turned as roundly. We struggled, till I became 
desirous that we should part at any rate, which I 
could only effect by a stroke of my poniard, which, 
according to old use, I have, thou knowest, always 
about me. I had scarce done this when I repented ; 
but there was no time to think of any thing save 
escape and concealment, for, if the house rose on 
me, I was lost ; as the fiery old man, who is head of 
the family, would have done justice on me had I 
been his brother. I took the body hastily on my 
shoulders to carry it down to the sea-shore, witli 
the purpose of throwing it into a riva^ as they call 
them, or chasm of great depth, where it would have 
been long enough in being discovered. This done, 
I intended to jump into the boat which I had lying 
ready, and set sail for Kirkwall. But, as I was 
walking hastily towards the beach with my burden, 
the poor young fellow groaned, and so apprized me 
that the wound had not been instantly fatal. I 
was by this time well concealed amongst the rocks, 
and, far from desiring to complete my crime, I laid 
the young man on the ground, and was doing what 
I could to stanch the blood, when suddenly an old 


THE PIRATE. 


173 


woman stood before me. She was a person whom I 
had frequently seen while in Zetland, and to whom 
they ascribe the character of a sorceress, or, as the 
negroes say, an Obi woman. She demanded the 
wounded man of me, and I was too much pressed 
for time to hesitate in complying with her request. 
More she was about to say to me, when we heard 
the voice of a silly old man, belonging to the family, 
singing at some distance. She then pressed her 
finger on her lip as a sign of secrecy, whistled very 
low, and a shapeless, deformed brute of a dwarf com- 
ing to her assistance, they carried the wounded man 
into one of the caverns with which the place abounds, 
and I got to my boat and to sea with all expedition. 
If that old hag be, as they say, connected with the 
King of the Air, she favoured me that morning 
with a turn of her calling ; for not even the West 
Indian tornadoes, which we have weathered together, 
made a wilder racket than the squall that drove me 
so far out of our course, that, without a pocket- 
compass, which I chanced to have about me, I 
should never have recovered the Fair Isle, for which 
we run, and where I found a brig which brought me 
to this place. But, whether the old woman meant 
me weal or woe, here we came at length in safety 
from the sea, and here I remain in doubts and 
difficulties of more kinds than one.” 

“ 0, the devil take the Sumburgh-head,” said 
Bunce, “ or whatever they call the rock that you 
knocked our clever little Eevenge against ! ” 

“ Do not say I knocked her on the rock,” said 
Cleveland ; “ have I not told you fifty times, if the 
cowards had not taken to their boat, though T 
showed them the danger, and told them they would 
all be swamped, which happened the instant they 


174 


THE PIRATE. 


cast off the painter, she would have been afloat at 
this moment ? Had they stood by me and the ship, 
their lives would have been saved ; had I gone with 
them, mine would have been lost ; who can say 
which is for the best ? ” 

“ Well,” replied his friend, “ I know your case 
now, and can the better help and advise. I will be 
true to you, Clement, as the blade to the hilt ; but 
I cannot think that you should leave us. As the 
old Scottish song says, ‘ Wae’s my heart that we 
should sunder ! ’ — But come, you will aboard with 
us to-day, at any rate ? ” 

“I have no other place of refuge,” said Cleve- 
land, with a sigh. 

He then once more ran his eyes over the bay, 
directing his spy -glass upon several of the vessels 
which traversed its surface, in hopes, doubtless, of 
discerning the vessel of Magnus Troil, and then 
followed his companion down the hill in silence. 


CHAPTEE XII. 


I strive like to the vessel in the tide-way, 

Which, lacking favouring breeze, hath not the power 
To stem the powerful current. — Even so, 

Eesolviug daily to forsake my vices. 

Habits, strong circumstance, renew’d temptation, 

Sweep me to sea again. — 0 heavenly breath. 

Fill thou my sails, and aid the feeble vessel. 

Which ne’er can reach the blessed port without thee ! 

*Tis Odds when Evens meet. 


Cleveland, with his friend Bunce, descended the 
hill for a time in silence, until at length the latter 
renewed their conversation. 

“ You have taken this fellow’s wound more on 
your conscience than you need. Captain — I have 
known you do more, and think less on’t.” 

“ Not on such slight provocation, Jack,” replied 
Cleveland. “ Besides, the lad saved my life ; and, 
say that I requited him the favour, still we should 
not have met on such evil terms ; but I trust that 
he may receive aid from that woman, who has cer- 
tainly strange skill in simples.” 

“ And over simpletons. Captain,” said his friend, 
“ in which class I must e’en put you down, if you 
think more on this subject. That you should be 
made a fool of by a young woman, why it is many 
an honest man’s case ; — but to puzzle your pate 
about the. mummeries of an old one, is far too great 
a folly to indulge a friend in. Talk to me of your 


176 


THE pirate. 


Minna, since you so call her, as much as you will ; 
but you have no title to trouble your faithful squire- 
errant with your old mumping magician. And now 
here we are once more amongst the booths and tents, 
which these good folk are pitching — let us look, and 
see whether we may not find some fun and frolic 
amongst them. In merry England, now, you would 
have seen, on such an occasion, two or three bands 
of strollers, as many fire-eaters and conjurers, as 
many shows of wild beasts ; but, amongst these 
grave folk, there is nothing but what savours of 
business and of commodity — no, not so much as a 
single squall from my merry gossip Punch and his 
rib Joan.” 

As Bunce thus spoke, Cleveland cast his eyes on 
some very gay clothes, which, with other articles, 
hung out upon one of the booths, that had a good 
deal more of ornament and exterior decoration than 
the rest. There was in front a small sign of can- 
vass painted, announcing the variety of goods which 
the owner of the booth, Bryce Snailsfoot, had on 
sale, and the reasonable prices at which he pro- 
posed to offer them to the public. For the further 
gratification of the spectator, the sign bore on the 
opposite side an emblematic device, resembling our 
first parents in their vegetable garments, with 
this legend — 

“ Poor sinners whom the snake deceives, 

Are fain to cover them with leaves, 

Zetland hath no leaves, ’tis true, 

Because that trees are none, or few; 

But we have flax and tails of woo’, 

For linen cloth and wadmaal blue ; 

And we have many of foreign knacks 
Of finer waft, than woo* or flax. 


THE PIRATE. 


177 


Ye galhuity Lambmas lads, ^ appear, 

And bring your Lambmas sisters here ; 

Bryce Snailsfoot spares not cost or care, 

To pleasure every gentle pair.” 

While Cleveland was perusing these goodly 
rhymes, which brought to his mind Claud Halcro, 
to whom, as the poet laureate of the island, ready 
with his talent alike in the service of the great and 
small, they probably owed their origin, the worthy 
proprietor of the booth, having cast his eye upon 
him, began with hasty and trembling hand to re- 
move some of the garments, which, as the sale did 
not commence till the ensuing day, he had exposed 
either for the purpose of airing them, or to excite 
the admiration of the spectators.. 

“ By my word. Captain,” whispered Bunce to 
Cleveland, “ you must have had that fellow under 
your clutches one day, and he remembers one gripe 
of your talons, and fears another. See how fast he 
is packing his wares out of sight, so soon as he set 
eyes on you ! ” 

“ His wares ! ” said Cleveland, on looking more 
attentively at his proceedings ; By Heaven, they 
are my clothes which I left in a chest at Jarlshof 
when the Eevenge was lost there — Why, Bryce 
Snailsfoot, thou thief, dog, and villain, what means 
this ? Have you not made enough of us by cheap 
buying and dear selling, that you have seized on 
my trunk and wearing apparel ? ” 

1 It was anciently a custom at Saint Olla’s Fair at Kirkwall, 
that the young people of the lower class, and of either sex, asso- 
ciated in pairs for the period of the Fair, during which the couple 
were termed Lambmas brother and sister. It is easy to conceive 
that the exclusive familiarity arising out of this custom was liable 
to abuse, the rather that it is said little scandal was attached to 
the indiscretions which it occasioned. 

VOL. II. — 12 


78 


THE PIRATE. 


Bryce Snailsfoot, who probably would otherwise 
not have been willing to see his friend the Captain, 
was now by the vivacity of his attack obliged to pay 
attention to him. He first whispered to his little 
foot-page, by whom, as we have already noticed, he 
was usually attended, “ Run to the town-council- 
house, jarto, and tell the provost and bailies they 
maun send some of their officers speedily, for here 
is like to be wild wark in the fair.” 

So having said, and having seconded his com- 
mands by a push on the shoulder of his messenger, 
which sent him spinning out of the shop as fast as 
heels could carry him, Bryce Snailsfoot turned to 
his old acquaintance, and, with that amplification 
of words and exaggeration of manner, which in Scot- 
land is called “ making a phrase,” he ejaculated — 
“ The Lord be gude to us ! the worthy Captain 
Cleveland, that we were all sae grieved about, re- 
turned to relieve our hearts again ! Wat have my 
cheeks been for you,” (here Bryce wiped his eyes,) 
“ and blithe am I now to see you restored to your 
sorrowing friends ! ” 

“ My sorrowing friends, you rascal ! ” said Cleve- 
land ; “ I will give you better cause for sorrow than 
ever you had on my account, if you do not tell me 
instantly where you stole all my clothes.” 

“ Stole ! ” ejaculated Bryce, casting up his eyes ; 
“ now the Powers be gude to us ! — the poor gentle- 
man has lost his reason in that weary gale of wind.” 

“ Why, you insolent rascal ! ” said Cleveland, 
grasping the cane which he carried, “ do you think 
to bamboozle me with your impudence ? As you 
would have a whole head on your shoulders, and 
your bones in a whole skin, one minute longer, tell 
me where the devil you stole my wearing apparel ? ” 


THE PIRATE. 


179 


Bryce Snailsfoot ejaculated once more a repetition 
of the word “ Stole! Now Heaven be gude to us ! ” 
but at the same time, conscious that the Captain was 
likely to be sudden in execution, cast an anxious 
look to the town, to see the loitering aid of the civil 
power advance to his rescue. 

“ I insist on an instant answer,” said the Captain, 
with upraised weapon, “ or else I will beat you to 
a mummy, and throw out all your frippery upon the 
common ! ” 

Meanwhile, Master John Bunce, who considered 
the whole affair as an excellent good jest, and not 
the worse one that it made Cleveland very angry, 
seized hold of the Captain’s arm, and, without any 
idea of ultimately preventing him from executing 
his threats, interfered just so much as was neces- 
sary to protract a discussion so amusing. 

“ Nay, let the honest man speak,” he said, “ mess- 
mate ; he has as fine a cozening face as ever stood 
on a knavish pair of shoulders, and his are the true 
flourishes of eloquence, in the course of which men 
snip the cloth an inch too short. Now, I wish you 
to consider that you are both of a trade, — be mea- 
sures bales by the yard, and you by the sword, — 
and so I will not have him chopped up till he has 
had a fair chase.” 

“ You are a fool ! ” said Cleveland, endeavouring to 
shake his friend off. — “ Let me go 1 for, by Heaven, 
I will be foul of him 1 ” 

“Hold him fast,” said the pedlar, “good dear 
merry gentleman, hold him fast 1 ” 

“ Then say something for yourself,” said Bunce ; 
“ use your gob-box, man ; patter away, or, by my 
soul, I will let him loose on you ! ” 

“He says I stole these goods,” said Bryce, who 


i8o 


THE PIRATE. 


now saw himself run so close, that pleading to the 
charge became inevitable. “ Now, how could I 
steal them, when they are mine by fair and law- 
ful purchase ? ” 

“ Purchase ! you beggarly vagrant ! ” said Cleve- 
land ; “ from.whom did you dare to buy my clothes ? 
or who had the impudence to sell them ? ” 

“ Just that worthy professor Mrs. Swertha, the 
housekeeper at Jarlshof, who acted as your execu- 
tor,” said the pedlar ; “ and a grieved heart she had.” 

“ And so she was resolved to make a heavy pocket, 
of it, I suppose,” said the Captain ; “ but how did 
she dare to sell the things left in her charge ? ” 

“ Why, she acted all for the best, good woman ! ” 
said the pedlar, anxious to protract the discussion 
until the arrival of succours ; “ and, if you will but 
hear reason, lam ready to account with you for the 
chest and all that it holds.” 

“Speak out, then, and let us have none of thy 
damnable evasions,” said Captain Cleveland ; “if 
you show ever so little purpose of being somewhat 
honest for once in thy life, I will not beat thee.” 

“ Why, you see, noble Captain,” said the pedlar, 

— and then muttered to himself, “ plague on Pate 
Paterson’s cripple knee, they will be waiting for 
him, hirpling useless body ! ” then resumed aloud 

— “ The country, you see, is in great perplexity, — 
great perplexity, indeed, — much perplexity, truly. 
There was your honour missing, that was loved 
by great and small — clean missing — nowhere to 
be heard of — a lost man — umquhile — dead — 
defunct ! ” 

“ You shall find me alive to your cost, you scoun- 
drel ! ” said the irritated Captain. 

“Weel, but take patience, — ye will not hear a 


THE PIRATE. 


i8i 


body speak,” said the dagger. — Then there was 

the lad Mordaunt Mertoun ” 

“ Ha ! ” said the Captain, “ what of him ? ” 

“ Cannot be heard of,” said the pedlar ; “ clean and 
clear tint, — a gone youth ; — fallen, it is thought, 
from the craig into the sea — he was aye venturous. 
I have had dealings with him for furs and feathers, 
whilk he swapped against powder and shot, and the 
like ; and now he has worn out from among us — 
clean retired — utterly vanished, like the last puff 
of an auld wife’s tobacco pipe.” 

“ But what is all this to the Captain’s clothes, my 
dear friend ? ” said Bunce ; “ I must presently beat 
you myself unless you come to the point.” 

“ Weel, weel, — patience, patience,” said Bryce, 
waving his hand ; “ you will get all time enough. 
Weel, there are two folks gane, as I said, forbye the 
distress at Burgh-Westra about Mistress Minna’s 
sad ailment ” 

“ Bring not her into your buffoonery, sirrah,” said 
Cleveland, in a tone of anger, not so loud, but far 
deeper and more concentrated than he had hitherto 
used ; “ for, if you name her with less than reverence, 
I will crop the ears out of your head, and make you 
swallow them on the spot ! ” 

“ He, he, he ! ” faintly laughed the dagger ; “ that 
were a pleasant jest ! you are pleased to be witty. 
But, to say naething of Burgh-Westra, there is the 
carle at Jarlshof, he that was the auld Mertoun, 
Mordaunt’s father, whom men thought as fast bound 
to the place he dwelt in as the Sumburgh-head 
itsell, naething maun serve him but he is lost as 
weel as the lave about whom I have spoken. And 
there’s Magnus Troil (wi’ favour be he named) taking 
.horse; and there is pleasant Maister Claud Halcro 


82 


THE PIRATE. 


taking boat, wbilk he steers worst of any man in 
Zetland, his head running on rambling rhymes ; 
and the Factor body is on the stir — the Scots Fac- 
tor, — him that is aye speaking of dikes and delving, 
and such unprofitable wark, which has naething of 
merchandise in it, and he is on the lang trot, too ; 
so that ye might say, upon a manner, the tae half 
of the Mainland of Zetland is lost, and the other is 
running to and fro seeking it — awfu’ times ! ” 

Captain Cleveland had subdued his passion, and 
listened to this tirade of the worthy man of mer- 
chandise, with impatience indeed, yet not without the 
hope of hearing something that might concern him. 
But his companion was now become impatient in his 
turn : — “ The clothes ! ” he exclaimed, “ the clothes, 
the clothes, the clothes ! ’’ accompanying each repe- 
tition of the words with a flourish of his cane, the 
dexterity of which consisted in coming mighty near 
the dagger’s ears without actually touching them. 

The dagger, shrinking from each of these demon- 
strations, continued to exclaim, “ Nay, sir — good 
sir — worthy sir — for the clothes — I found the 
worthy dame in great distress on account of her old 
maister, and on account of her young maister, and 
on account of worthy Captain Cleveland ; and be- 
cause of the distress of the worthy P’owd’s family, 
and the trouble of the great Fowd himself, — and 
because of the Factor, and in respect of Claud Hal- 
cro, and on other accounts. and respects. Also we 
mingled our sorrows and our tears with a bottle, as 
the holy text hath it, and called in the Eanzelman 
to our council, a worthy man, Niel Eonaldson by 
name, who hath a good reputation.” 

Here another flourish of the cane came so very 
near that it partly touched his ear. The dagger 


THE PIRATE. 


183 


started back, and the truth, or that which he de- 
sired should be considered as such, bolted from him 
without more circumlocution ; as a cork, after much 
unnecessary buzzing and fizzing, springs forth from 
a bottle of spruce beer. 

“In brief, what the deil mair would you have 
of it ? — the woman sold me the kist of clothes — 
they are mine by purchase, and that is what I will 
live and die upon.” 

“ In other words,” said Cleveland, “ this greedy 
old hag had the impudence to sell what was none 
of hers ; and you, honest Bryce Snailsfoot, had the 
assurance to be the purchaser ? ” 

“ Ou dear. Captain,” said the conscientious ped- 
lar, “ what wad ye hae had twa poor folk to do ? 
There was yoursell gane that aught the things, and 
Maister Mordaunt was gane that had them in keep- 
ing, and the things were but damply put up, where 
they were rotting with moth and mould, and ” 

“ And so this old thief sold them, and you bought 
them, I suppose, just to keep them from spoiling ? ” 
said Cleveland. 

“ Weel then,” said the merchant, “ I’m thinking, 
noble Captain, that wad be just the gate of it.” 

“Well then, hark ye, you impudent scoundrel,” said 
the Captain. “ I do not wish to dirty my fingers with 
you, or to make any disturbance in this place ” 

“ Good reason for that. Captain — aha ! ” said the 
dagger, slyly. 

“ I will break your bones if you speak another 
word,” replied Cleveland. “ Take notice — I offer 
you fair terms — give me back the black leathern 
pocket-book with the lock upon it, and the purse 
with the doubloons, with some few of the clothes 
I want, and keep the rest in the devil’s name ! ” 


THE PIRATE. 


184 


“Doubloons! ! I” — exclaimed the dagger, with 
an exaltation of voice intended to indicate the 
utmost extremity of surprise, — “ What do I ken of 
doubloons ? my dealing was for doublets, and not 
for doubloons — If there were doubloons in the kist, 
doubtless Swertha will have them in safe keeping 
for your honour — the damp wouldna harm the gold, 
ye ken.” 

“Give me back my pocket-book and my goods, 
you rascally thief,” said Cleveland, “or without a 
word more I will beat your brains out 1 ” 

The wily dagger, casting eye around him, saw 
that succour was near, in the shape of a party of 
officers, six in number ; for several rencontres with 
the crew of the pirate had taught the magistrates 
of Kirkwall to strengthen their police parties when 
these strangers were in question. 

“ Ye had better keep the thief to suit yoursell, 
honoured Captain,” said the dagger, emboldened by 
the approach of the civil power ; “ for wha kens 
how a’ these fine goods and bonny-dies were come 
by?” 

This was uttered with such provoking slyness of 
look and tone, that Cleveland made no further de- 
lay, but, seizing upon the dagger by the collar, 
dragged him over his temporary counter, which was, 
with all the goods displayed thereon, overset in the 
scuffie ; and, holding him with one hand, inflicted 
on him with the other a severe beating with his 
cane. All this was done so suddenly and with such 
energy, that Bryce Snailsfoot, though rather a stout 
man, was totally surprised by the vivacity of the 
attack, and made scarce any other effort at extri- 
cating himself than by roaring for assistance like a 
bull-calf. The “ loitering aid ” having at length 


THE PIRATE. 


85 


come up, the officers made an effort to seize on 
Cleveland, and by their united exertions succeeded 
in compelling him to quit hold of the pedlar, in 
order to defend himself from their assault. This he 
did with infinite strength, resolution, and dexterity, 
being at the same time well seconded by his friend 
Jack Bunce, who had seen with glee the drubbing 
sustained by the pedlar, and now combated tightly 
to save his companion from the consequences. But, 
as there had been for some time a growing feud be- 
tween the townspeople and the crew of the Rover, 
the former, provoked by the insolent deportment 
of the seamen, had resolved to stand by each other, 
and to aid the civil power upon such occasions of 
riot as should occur in future ; and so many assist- 
ants came up to the rescue of the constables, that 
Cleveland, after fighting most manfully, was at 
length brought to the ground and made prisoner. 
His more fortunate companion had escaped by 
speed of foot, as soon as he saw that the day must 
needs be determined against them. 

The proud heart of Cleveland, which, even in its 
perversion, had in its feelings something of original 
nobleness, was like to burst, when he felt himself 
borne down in this unworthy brawl — dragged into 
the town as a prisoner, and hurried through the 
streets towards the Council-house, where the mag- 
istrates of the burgh were then seated in council. 
The probability of imprisonment, with all its con- 
sequences, rushed also upon his mind, and he 
cursed an hundred times the folly which had not 
rather submitted to the pedlar’s knayery, than in- 
volved him in so perilous an embarrassment. 

But just as they approached the door of the 
Council-house, which is situated in the middle of 


i86 


THE PIRATE. 


the little town, the face of matters was suddenly 
changed by a new and unexpected incident. 

Bunce, who had designed, by his precipitate re- 
treat, to serve as well his friend as himself, had hied 
him to the haven, where the boat of the Rover was 
then lying, and called the cockswain and boat’s crew 
to the assistance of {Cleveland. They now appeared 
on the scene — fierce desperadoes, as became their 
calling, with features bronzed by the tropical sun 
under which they had pursued it. They rushed at 
once amongst the crowd, laying about them with 
their stretchers ; and, forcing their way up to Cleve- 
land, speedily delivered him from the hands of the 
officers, who were totally unprepared to resist an 
attack so furious and so sudden, and carried him 
off in triumph towards the quay, — two or three of 
their number facing about from time to time to keep 
back the crowd, whose efforts to recover the prisoner 
were the less violent, that most of the seamen were 
armed with pistols and cutlasses, as well as with 
the less lethal weapons which alone they had as yet 
made use of. 

They gained their boat in safety, and jumped into 
it, carrying along with them Cleveland, to whom 
circumstances seemed to offer no other refuge, and 
pushed off for their vessel, singing in chorus to their 
oars an old ditty, of which the natives of Kirkwall 
could only hear the first stanza : 

“ Robin Rover 
Said to his crew, 

* Up with the black flag, 

Down with the blue I — 

Fire on the main-top, 

Fire on the bow, 

Fire on the gun-deck. 

Fire down below ! * ** 


THE PIRATE. 


87 


The wild chorus of their voices was heard long 
after the words ceased to be intelligible. — And thus 
was the pirate Cleveland again thrown almost 
involuntarily amongst those desperate associates, 
from whom he had so often resolved to detach 
himself. 


CHAPTEE XlII. 


Parental love, ray friend, has power o’er wisdom, 

And is the charm, which, like the falconer’s lure. 

Can bring from heaven the highest soaring spirits. — 

So, when famed Prosper doff’d his magic robe, 

It was Miranda pluck’d it from his shoulders. 

Old Play, 

OuK wandering narrative must now return to Mor- 
daunt Mertoun. — We left him in the perilous con- 
dition of one who has received a severe wound, and 
we now find him in the condition of a conva- 
lescent — pale, indeed, and feeble from the loss of 
much blood, and the effects of a fever which had 
followed the injury, but so far fortunate, that the 
weapon, having glanced on the ribs, had only occa- 
sioned a great effusion of blood, without touching 
any vital part, and was now wellnigh healed ; so 
efficacious were the vulnerary plants and salves 
with which it had been treated by the sage Norna 
of Fitful-head. 

The matron and her patient now sat together in 
a dwelling in a remote island. He had been trans- 
ported, during his illness, and ere he had perfect 
consciousness, first to her singular habitation near 
Fitful-head, and thence to her present, abode, by 
one of the fishing-boats on the station of Burgh- 
Westra. For such was the command possessed by 
Norna over the superstitious character of her coun- 
trymen, that she never failed to find faithful agents 


THE PIRATE. 


189 


to execute her commands, whatever these happened 
to be ; and, as her orders were generally given 
under injunctipns of the strictest secrecy, men re- 
ciprocally wondered at occurrences, which had in 
fact been produced by their own agency, and that 
of their neighbours, and in which, had they com- 
municated freely with each other, no shadow of the 
marvellous would have remained. 

Mordaunt was now seated by the fire, in an apart- 
ment indifferently well furnished, having a book in 
his hand, which he looked upon from time to time 
with signs of ennui and impatience ; feelings which 
at length so far overcame him, that, flinging the 
volume on the table, he fixed .his eyes on the fire, 
and assumed the attitude of one who is engaged in 
unpleasant meditation. 

Norna, who sat opposite to him, and appeared 
busy in the composition of some drug or unguent, 
anxiously left her seat, and, approaching Mordaunt, 
felt his pulse, making at the same time the most 
affectionate enquiries whether he felt any sudden 
pain, and where it was seated. The manner in 
which Mordaunt replied to these earnest enquiries, 
although worded so as to express gratitude for her 
kindness, while he disclaimed any feeling of indis- 
position, did not seem to give satisfaction to the 
Pythoness. 

“ Ungrateful boy ! ” she said, “ for whom I have 
done so much ; you whom I have rescued, by my 
power and skill, from the very gates of death, — are 
you already so weary of me, that you cannot refrain 
from showing how desirous you are to spend, at a 
distance from me, the very first intelligent days of 
the life which I have restored you ? ” 

“You do me injustice, my kind preserver,” re- 


190 


THE PIRATE. 


plied Mordaunt ; “ I am not tired of your society ; 
but I have duties which recall me to ordinary life.” 

“ Duties ! ” repeated Norna ; “ and what duties can 
or ought to interfere with the gratitude which you 
owe to me ? — Duties ! Your thoughts are on the use 
of your gun, or on clambering among the rocks in 
quest of sea-fowl. For these exercises your strength 
doth not yet fit you ; and yet these are the duties 
to which you are so anxious to return ! ” 

“ Not so, my good and kind mistress,” said Mor- 
daunt. — To name one duty, out of many, which 
makes me seek to leave you, now that my strength 
permits, let me mention that of a son to his father.” 

“ To your father ! ” said Norna, with a laugh that 
had something in it almost frantic. “ O ! you know 
not how we can, in these islands, at once cancel such 
duties ! And, for your father,” she added, proceed- 
ing more calmly, “ what has he done for you, to 
deserve the regard and duty you speak of ? — Is he 
not the same, who, as you have long since told me, 
left you for so many years poorly nourished among 
strangers, without enquiring whether you were alive 
or dead, and only sending, from time to time, sup- 
plies in such fashion, as men relieve the leprous 
wretch to whom they fling alms from a distance ? 
And, in these later years, when he had made you 
the companion of his misery, he has been, by starts 
your pedagogue, by starts your tormentor, but 
never, Mordaunt, never your father.” 

“ Something of truth there is in what you say,” 
replied Mordaunt : “ My father is not fond ; but he 
is, and has ever been, effectively kind. Men have 
not their affections in their power; and it is a 
child’s duty to be grateful for the benefits which he 
receives, even when coldly bestowed. My father 


THE PIRATE. 


191 


has conferred instruction on me, and I am con- 
vinced he loves me. He is unfortunate ;.and, even 
if he loved me not ” 

“ And he does not love you,” said Norna, hastily ; 
“ he never loved any thing, or any one, save him- 
self. He is unfortunate, but well are his misfor- 
tunes deserved. — 0 Mordaunt, you have one 
parent only, — one parent, who loves you as the 
drops of the heart-blood ! ” 

“I know I have but one parent,” replied Mor- 
daunt ; “ my mother has been long dead. — But 
your words contradict each other.” 

“ They do not — they do not,” said Norna, in a 
paroxysm of the deepest feeling ; “ you have but 
one parent. Your unhappy mother is not dead — T 
would to God that she were ! — but she is not dead. 
Thy mother is the only parent that loves thee ; and 
I — I, Mordaunt,” throwing herself on his neck, “ am 
that most unhappy — yet most happy mother.” 

She closed him in a strict and convulsive em- 
brace ; and tears, the first, perhaps, which she had 
shed for many years, burst in torrents as she sobbed 
on his neck. Astonished at what he heard, felt, 
and saw, — moved by the excess of her agitation, yet 
disposed to ascribe this burst of passion to insanity, 
— Mordaunt vainly endeavoured to tranquillize the 
mind of this extraordinary person. 

“ Ungrateful boy ! ” she said, “ who but a mother 
would have watched over thee as I have watched ? 
From the instant I saw thy father, when he little 
thought by whom he was observed, a space now 
many years back, I knew him well ; and, under his 
charge, I saw you, then a stripling, — while Nature, 
speaking loud in my bosom, assured me, thou wert 
blood of my blood, and bone of my bone. Think 


192 


THE PIRATE. 


how often you have wondered to see me, when 
least expected, in your places of pastime and resort ! 
Think how often my eye has watched you on the 
giddy precipices, and muttered those charms which 
subdue the evil demons, who show themselves to 
the climber on the giddiest point of his path, and 
force him to quit his hold ! Did I not hang around 
thy neck, in pledge of thy safety, that chain of gold, 
which an Ellin King gave to the founder of our 
race? Would I have given that dear gift to any 
but to the son of my bosom ? — Mordaunt, my 
power has done that for thee that a mere mortal 
mother would dread to think of. I have conjured 
the Mermaid at midnight, that thy bark might be 
prosperous on the Haaf ! I have hushed the winds, 
and navies have flapped their empty sails against 
the mast in inactivity, that you might safely indulge 
ydur sport upon the crags ! ” 

Mordaunt,. perceiving that she was growing yet 
wilder in her talk, endeavoured to frame an answer 
which should be at once indulgent, soothing, 
and calculated to allay the rising warmth of her 
imagination. 

“ Dear Norna,” he said, “ I have indeed many 
reasons to call you mother, who have bestowed so 
many benefits upon me ; and from me you shall 
ever receive the affection and duty of a child. But 
the chain you mentioned, it has vanished from my 
neck — I have not seen it since the rufiian stabbed 
me.” 

“ Alas ! and can you think of it at this moment ? ” 
said Norna, in a sorrowful accent. — “ But be it so ; 
— and know, it was I took it from thy neck, and 
tied it around the neck of her who is dearest to 
you ; in token that the union betwixt you, which 


THE IHRATE. 


193 


has been the only earthly wish which I have had 
the power to form, shall yet, even yet, be accom- 
plished — ay, although hell should open to forbid 
the bans ! ” 

“ Alas ! ” said Mordaunt, with a sigh, “ you fe* 
member not the difference betwixt our situation — 
her father is wealthy, and of ancient birth ” 

“ Not more wealthy than will be the heir of Norna 
of Fitful-head,” answered the Pythoness — “not of 
better or more ancient blood than that which flows 
in thy veins, derived from thy mother, the descend- 
ant of the same Jarls and Sea-Kings from whom 
Magnus boasts his origin. — Or dost thou think, like 
the pedant and fanatic strangers who have come 
amongst us, that thy blood is dishonoured because 
my union with thy father did not receive the sanc- 
tion of a priest ? — Know, that we were wedded after 
the ancient manner of the Norse — our hands were 
clasped within the circle of Odin,^ with such deep 
vows of eternal fidelity, as even the laws of these 
usurping Scots would have sanctioned as equivalent 
to a blessing before the altar. To the oflspriiig of 
such a union, Magnus has nought to object. It 
was weak — it was criminal, on my part, but it con- 
veyed no infamy to the birth of my son.” 

The composed and collected manner in which 
Norna argued these points began to impose upon 
Mordaunt an incipient belief in the truth of what 
she said ; and, indeed, she added so many circum- 
stances, satisfactorily and rationally connected with 
each other, as seemed to confute the notion that her 
story was altogether the delusion of that insanity 
which sometimes showed itself in her speech and 

1 See an explanation of this promise, Note II. of this volume. 

YOU W. — 13 


194 


THE PIRATE. 


actions. A thousand confused ideas rushed upon 
him, when he supposed it possible that the unhappy 
person before him might actually have a right to 
claim from him the respect and affection due to a 
parent from a son. He could only surmount them 
by turning his mind to a different, and scarce less 
interesting topic, resolving within himself to take 
time for farther enquiry and mature consideration, 
ere he either rejected or admitted the claim which 
Norna preferred upon his affection and duty. His 
benefactress, at least, she undoubtedly was, and he 
could not err in paying her, as such, the respect 
and attention due from a son to a mother; and 
so far, therefore, he might gratify Norna without 
otherwise standing committed. 

“ And do you then really think, my mother, — 
since so you bid me term you,” — said Mordaunt, 
“ that the proud Magnus Troil may, by any induce- 
ment, be prevailed upon to relinquish the angry 
feelings which he has of late adopted towards 
me, and to permit my addresses to his daughter 
Brenda ? ” 

“Brenda?” repeated Norna — “who talks of 
Brenda ? — it was of Minna that I spoke to you.” 

“ But it was of Brenda that I thought,” replied 
Mordaunt, “ of her that I now think, and of her 
alone that I will ever think.” 

“Impossible, my son!” replied Norna. “You 
cannot be so dull of heart, so poor of spirit, as 
to prefer the idle mirth and housewife simplicity 
of the younger sister, to the deep feeling and high 
mind of the noble-spirited Minna? Who would 
stoop to gather the lowly violet, that might have 
the rose for stretching out his hand ? ” 

“ Some think the lowliest flowers are the sweet- 


THE PIKATE. 


195 

est/’ replied Mordaunt, “ and in that faith will I 
live and die.” 

“ You dare not tell me so ! ” answered Norna, 
fiercely ; then, instantly changing her tone, and 
taking his hand in the most affectionate manner, 
she proceeded : — “ You must not — you will not tell 
me so, my dear son — you will not break a mother’s 
heart in the very first hour in which she has em- 
braced her child ! — Nay, do not answer, but hear 
me. You must wed Minna — I have hound around 
her neck a fatal amulet, on which the happiness of 
both depends. The labours of my life have for years 
had this direction. Thus it must be, and not other- 
wise — Minna must he the bride of my son ! ” 

‘*But is not Brenda equally near, equally dear to 
you ? ” replied Mordaunt. 

“As near in blood,” said Norna, “but not so 
dear, no not half so dear, in affection. Minna’s mild, 
yet high and contemplative spirit, renders her a 
companion meet for one, whose ways, like mine, are- 
beyond the ordinary paths of this world. Brenda 
is a thing of common and ordinary life, an idle 
laugher and scoffer, who would level art with igno- 
rance, and reduce power to weakness, by disbeliev- 
ing and turning into ridicule whatever is beyond 
the grasp of her own shallow intellect.” 

“She is, indeed,” answered Mordaunt, “neither 
superstitious nor enthusiastic, and I love her the 
better for it. Eemember also, my mother, that she 
returns my affection, and that Minna, if she loves 
any one, loves the stranger Cleveland.” 

“ She does not — she dares not,” answered Norna, 
•‘nor dares he pursue her farther. I told him, 
when first he came to Burgh-Westra, that I destined 
her for you.” 


\<)6 


THE PIRATE. 


“ And to that rash annunciation ” said Mordaunt, 
“ T owe this man’s persevering enmity — my wound, 
and wellnigh the loss of my life. See, my mother, 
to what point your intrigues have already con- 
ducted us, and, in Heaven’s name, prosecute them 
no farther ! ” 

It seemed as if this reproach struck Norna with 
the force, at once, and vivacity of lightning ; for 
she struck her forehead with her hand, and seemed 
about to drop from her seat. Mordaunt, greatly 
shocked, hastened to catch her in his arms, and, 
though scarce knowing what to say, attempted to 
utter some incoherent expressions. 

“Spare me. Heaven, spare me!” were the first 
words which she muttered ; “ do not let my crime 
he avenged by his means ! — Yes, young man,” she 
said, after a pause, “ you have dared to tell what 
I dared not tell myself. You have pressed that 
upon me, which, if it be truth, T cannot believe, and 
yet continue to live ! ” 

Mordaunt in vain endeavoured to interrupt her 
with protestations of his ignorance how he had 
offended or grieved her, and of his extreme re- 
gret that he had unintentionally done either. She 
proceeded, while her voice trembled wildly, with 
vehemence. 

“ Yes ! you have touched on that dark suspicion 
which poisons the consciousness of my power, — the 
sole boon which was given me in exchange for in- 
nocence and for peace of mind 1 Your voice joins 
that of the demon which, even while the elements 
confess me their mistress, whispers to me, ‘ Norna, 
this is but delusion — your power rests but in the 
idle belief of the ignorant, supported by a thousand 
petty artifices of your own.* — This is what Brenda 


THE PIRATE. 


197 


says — this is what you would say ; and false, scan- 
dalously false, as it is, there are rebellious thoughts 
in this wild brain of mine,” (touching her forehead 
with her finger as she spoke,) “ that, like an insur- 
rection in an invaded country, arise to take part 
against their distressed sovereign. — Spare me, my 
son ! ” she continued in a voice of supplication, 
“ spare me ! — the sovereignty of which your words 
would deprive me, is no enviable exaltation. Few 
would covet to rule over gibbering ghosts, and 
howling winds, and raging currents. My throne 
is a cloud, my sceptre a meteor, my realm is only 
peopled with fantasies ; but I must either cease to 
be, or continue to be the mightiest as well as the 
most miserable of beings ! ” ^ 

“ Do not speak thus mournfully, my dear and un- 
happy benefactress,” said Mordaunt, much affected ; 
“I will think of your power whatever you would 
have me believe. But, for your own sake, view 
the matter otherwise. Turn your thoughts from 
such agitating and mystical studies — from such 
wild subjects of contemplation, into another and a 
better channel. Life will again have charms, and 
religion will have comforts, for you.” 

She listened to him with some composure, as if 
she weighed his counsel, and desired to be guided 
by it ; but, as he ended, she shook her head and 
exclaimed — 

“ It cannot be. I must remain the dreaded — 
the mystical — the Reimkennar — the controller of 
the elements, or I must be no more ! I have no al- 
ternative, no middle station. My post must be high 
on yon lofty headland, where never stood human 
foot save mine — or I must sleep at the bottom of 
1 Note V. — Character of Norna. 


198 


THE PIRATE. 


the unfathomable ocean, its white billows booming 
over my senseless corpse. The parricide shall never 
also be denounced as the impostor ! ” 

“ The parricide ! ” echoed Mordaunt, stepping 
back in horror. 

“ Yes, my son ! ” answered Norna, with a stern 
composure, even more frightful than her former 
impetuosity, “within these fatal walls my father 
met his death by my means. In yonder chamber 
was he found a livid and . lifeless corpse. Beware 
of filial disobedience, for such are its fruits ! ” 

So saying, she arose and left the apartment, where 
Mordaunt remained alone to meditate at leisure 
upon the extraordinary communication which he 
had received. He himself had been taught by his 
father a disbelief in the ordinary superstitions of 
Zetland; and he now saw that Norna, however 
ingenious in duping others, could not altogether 
impose on herself. This was a strong circumstance 
in favour of her sanity of intellect ; but, on the other 
hand, her imputing to herself the guilt of parricide 
seemed so wild and improbable, as, in Mordaunt's 
opinion, to throw much doubt upon her other 
assertions. 

He had leisure enough to make up his mind on 
these particulars, for no one approached the soli- 
tary dwelling, of which Norna, her dwarf, and he 
himself, were the sole inhabitants. The Hoy island 
in which it stood is rude, bold, and lofty, consisting 
entirely of three hills — or rather one huge moun- 
tain divided into three summits, with the chasms, 
rents, and valleys, which descend from its summit 
to the sea, while its crest, rising to great height, 
and shivered into rocks which seem almost inacces- 
sible, intercepts the mists as they drive from the 


THE PIRATE. 


199 


Atlantic, and, often obscured from the human eye, 
forms the dark and unmolested retreat of hawks, 
eagles, and other birds of prey.^ 

The soil of the island is wet, mossy, cold, and un- 
productive, presenting a sterile and desolate appear- 
ance, excepting where the sides of small rivulets, 
or mountain ravines, are fringed with dwarf bushes 
of birch, hazel, and wild currant, some of them so 
tall as to be denominated trees, in that bleak and 
bare country. 

But the view of the sea-beach, which was Mor- 
daunt’s favourite walk, when his convalescent state 
began to permit him to take exercise, had charms 
which compensated the wild appearance of the 
interior. A broad and beautiful sound, or strait, 
divides this lonely and mountainous island from 
Pomona, and in the centre of that sound lies, like 
a tablet composed of emerald, the beautiful and 
verdant little island of Grsemsay. On the distant 
Mainland is seen the town or village of Stromness, 
the excellence of whose haven is generally evinced 
by a considerable number of shipping in the road- 
stead, and, from the bay growing narrower, and 
lessening as it recedes, runs inland into Pomona, 
where its tide fills the fine sheet of water called the 
Loch of Stennis. 

On this beach Mordaunt was wont to wander for 
hours, with an eye not insensible to the beauties of 
the view, though his thoughts were agitated with 
the most embarrassing meditations on his own situ- 
ation. He was resolved to leave the island as soon 
as the establishment of his health should permit him 
to travel ; yet gratitude to Horna, of whom he was 
at least the adopted, if not the real son, would not 
1 Note VI. — Birds of Prey. 


200 


THE PIRATE. 


allow him to depart without her permission, even if 
he could obtain means of conveyance, of which he 
saw little possibility. It was only by importunity 
that he extorted from his hostess a promise, that, if 
he would consent to regulate his motions according 
to her directions, she would herself convey him to 
the capital of the Orkney Islands, when the approach- 
ing Fair of Saint 011a should take place there. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Hark to the insult loud, the bitter sneer, 

The fierce threat answering to the brutal jeer; 

Oaths fly like pistol-shots, and vengeful words 
Clash v.’itli each other like conflicting swords — 

The robber’s quarrel by such sounds is shown. 

And true men have some chance to gain their own. 

Captivity f a Poem. 

When Cleveland, borne off in triumph from his 
assailants in Kirkwall, found himself once more on 
board the pirate-vessel, his arrival was hailed with 
hearty cheers by a considerable part of the crew, 
who rushed to shake hands with him, and offer their 
congratulations on his return ; for the situation of a 
Buccanier Captain raised him very little above the 
level of the lowest of his crew, who, in all social in- 
tercourse, claimed the privilege of being his equal. 

When his faction, for so these clamorous friends 
might be termed, had expressed their own greet- 
ings, they hurried Cleveland fc .’ward to the stern, 
where Goffe, their present commander, was seated 
on a gun, listening in a sullen and discontented 
mood to the shout which announced Cleveland’s 
welcome. He was a man betwixt forty and fifty, 
rather under the middle size, but so very strongly 
made, that his crew used to compare him to a sixty- 
four cut down. Black-haired, bull-necked, and 
beetle-browed, his clumsy strength and ferocious 
countenance contrasted strongly with the manly 


i02 


THE PIRATE. 


figure and open countenance of Cleveland, in which 
even the practice of his atrocious profession had not 
been able to eradicate a natural grace of motion 
and generosity of expression. The two piratical 
Captains looked upon each other for some time in 
silence, while the partisans of each gathered around 
him. The elder part of the crew were the principal 
adherents of Goffe, while the young fellows, among 
whom Jack Bunce was a principal leader and 
agitator, were in general attached to Cleveland. 

At length Goffe broke silence. — “You are wel- 
come aboard. Captain Cleveland. — Smash my taf- 
frail ! I suppose you think yourself commodore 
yet ! but that was over, by G — , when you lost your 
ship, and be d — d ! ” 

And here, once for all, we may take notice, that 
it was the gracious custom of this commander to 
mix his words and oaths in nearly equal proportions, 
which he was wont to call shotting his discourse. 
As we delight not, however, in the discharge of such 
artillery, we shall only indicate by a space like this 

the places in which these expletives occurred ; 

and thus, if the reader will pardon a very poor pun, 
we will reduce Captain Goffe’s volley of sharp-shot 
into an explosion of blank cartridges. To his insin- 
uations that he was come on board to assume the 
chief command, Cleveland replied, that he neither 
desired, nor would accept, any such promotion, but 
would only ask Captain Goffe for a cast of the boat, 
to put him ashore in one of the other islands, as he 
had no wish either to command Goffe, or to remain 
in a vessel under his orders. 

“ And why not under my orders, brother ? ” 

demanded Goffe, very austerely ; “ are 

you too good a man, with your cheese- 


THE PIRATE. 


203 


toaster and your jib there, to serve under 

my orders, and be d — d to you, where there are 
so many gentlemen that are elder and better 
seamen than yourself ? ” 

“ I wonder which of these capital seamen it was,” 
said Cleveland, coolly, “that laid the ship under the 
fire of yon six-gun battery, that could blow her out 
of the water, if they had a mind, before you could 
either cut or slip ? Elder and better sailors than I 
may like to serve under such a lubber, but I beg 
to be excused for my own share, Captain — that’s 
all I have got to tell you.” 

“ By G — , I think you are both mad ! said 
Hawkins the boatswain — “a meeting with sword 
and pistol may be devilish good fun in its way, 
when no better is to be had ; but who the devil that 
had common sense, amongst a set of gentlemen in 
our condition, would fall a quarrelling with each 
other, to let these duck-winged, web-footed islanders 
have a chance of knocking us all upon the head ? ” 
“Well said, old Hawkins !” observed Derrick the 
quarter-master, who was an officer of very consid- 
erable importance among these rovers ; “ I say, 
if the two captains won’t agree to live together 
quietly, and club both heart and head to defend 
the vessel, why, d — n me, depose them both, say 
I, and choose another in their stead ! ” 

“ Meaning yourself, I suppose, Master Quarter- 
Master!” said Jack Bunce; “but that cock won’t 
fight. He that is to command gentlemen, should 
be a gentleman himself, I think; and I give my 
vote for Captain Cleveland, as spirited and as 
gentleman-like a man as ever daffed the world 
aside, and bid it pass ! ” 

“What! you call yourself a gentleman, I war- 


204 


THE PIRATE. 


rant ! ” retorted Derrick ; “ why, your eyes ! 

a tailor would make a better out of the worst suit 
of rags in your strolling wardrobe ! — It is a shame 
for men of spirit to have such a Jack-a-dandy scare- 
crow on board ! ” 

Jack Bunce was so incensed at these base com- 
parisons, that without more ado, he laid his hand 
on his sword. The carpenter, however, and boat- 
swain, interfered, the former brandishing his broad 
axe, and swearing he would put the skull of the 
first who should strike a blow past clouting, and the 
latter reminding them, that, by their articles, all 
quarrelling, striking, or more especially fighting, 
on board, was strictly prohibited ; and that, if any 
gentleman had a quarrel to settle, they were to 
go ashore, and decide it with cutlass and pistol in 
presence of two of their messmates. 

“ I have no quarrel with any one, ! ” 

said Goffe, sullenly ; “ Captain Cleveland has wan- 
dered about among the islands here, amusing him- 
self, ! and we have wasted our time and 

property in waiting for him, when we might have 
been adding twenty or thirty thousand dollars to 
the stock-purse. However, if it pleases the rest 

of the gentlemen-adventurers, ! why, I 

shall not grumble about it.” 

“I propose,” said the boatswain, “that there 
should be a general council called in the. great 
cabin, according to our articles, that we may con- 
sider what course we are to hold in this matter.” 

A general assent followed the boatswain’s pro- 
posal ; for every one found his own account in these 
general councils, in which each of the rovers had a 
free vote. By far the greater part of the crew only 
valued this franchise, as it allowed them, upon such 


THE PIRATE. 


205 


solemn occasions, an unlimited quantity of liquor — 
a right which they failed not to exercise to the utter- 
most, by way of aiding their deliberations. But 
a few amongst the adventurers, who united some 
degree of judgment with the daring and profligate 
character of their - profession, were wont, at such 
periods, to limit themselves within the bounds of 
comparative sobriety, and by these, under the ap- 
parent form of a vote of the general council, all 
things of moment relating to the voyage and under- 
takings of the pirates were in fact determined. 
The rest of the crew, when they recovered from 
their intoxication, were easily persuaded that the 
resolution adopted had been the legitimate effort 
of the combined wisdom of the whole senate. 

Upon the present occasion the debauch had pro- 
ceeded until the greater part of the crew were, as 
usual, displaying inebriation in all its most brutal 
and disgraceful shapes — swearing empty and un- 
meaning oaths — venting the most horrid impreca- 
tions in the mere gaiety of their heart — singing 
songs, the ribaldry of which was only equalled by 
their profaneness ; and, from the middle of this 
earthly hell, the two captains, together with one or 
two of their principal adherents, as also the car- 
penter and boatswain, who always took a lead on 
such occasions, had drawn together into a pande- 
monium, or privy council of their own, to consider 
what was to be done ; for, as the boatswain meta- 
phorically observed, they were in a narrow channel, 
and behoved to keep sounding the tide-way. 

When they began their consultations, the friends 
of Goffe remarked, to their great displeasure, that 
he had not observed the wholesome rule to which 
we have just alluded ; but that, in endeavouring to 


2o6 


THE PIRATE. 


drown his mortification at the sudden appearance 
of Cleveland, and the reception he met with from 
the crew, the elder Captain had not been able to do 
so without overflowing his reason at the same time. 
His natural sullen taciturnity had prevented this 
from being observed until the council began its 
deliberations, when it proved impossible to hide it. 

The first person who spoke was Cleveland, who 
said, that, so far from wishing the command of the 
vessel, he desired no favour at any one’s hand, 
except to land him upon some island or holm at a 
distance from 'Kirkwall, and leave him to shift for 
himself. 

The boatswain remonstrated strongly against this 
resolution. “The lads,” he said, “all knew Cleve- 
land, and could trust his seamanship, as well as his 
courage; besides, he never let the grog get quite 
uppermost, and was always in proper trim, either 
to sail the ship, or to fight the ship, whereby she 
was never without some one to keep her course when 
he was on board. — And as for the noble Captain 
Goffe,” continued the mediator, “ he is as stout a 
heart as ever broke biscuit, and that I will uphold 
him ; but then, when he has his grog aboard — I 
speak to his face — he is so d — d funny with his 
cranks and his jests, that there is no living with 
him. You all remember how nigh he had run the 
ship on that cursed Horse of Copinsha, as they call 
it, just by way of frolic ; and then you know how 
he fired off his pistol under the table, when we 
were at the great council, and shot Jack Jenkins 
in the knee, and cost the poor devil his leg, with 
his pleasantry.” ^ 

1 This was really an exploit of the celebrated Avery the 
pirate, who suddenly, and without provocation, fired his pistols 


THE PIRATE. 


207 


"Jack Jenkins was not a chip the worse,” said 
the carpenter ; " I took the leg off with my saw as 
well as any loblolly-boy in the land could have done 
— heated my broad axe, and seared the stump — 
made a jury-leg that he shambles 
about with as well as ever he did — for Jack could 
never cut a feather.” ^ 

" You are a clever fellow, carpenter,” replied the 
boatswain, " a d — d clever fellow ! but I had rather 
you tried your saw and red-hot axe upon the ship’s 
knee-timbers than on mine, sink me ! — But that 
here is not the case — The question is, if we shall 
part with Captain Cleveland here, who is a man of 
thought and action, whereby it is my belief it would 
be heaving the pilot overboard when the gale is 
blowing on a lee-shore. And, I must say, it is not 
the part of a true heart to leave his mates, who 
have been here waiting for him till they have 
missed stays. Our water is wellnigh out, and we 
have junketed till provisions are low with us. We 
cannot sail without provisions — we cannot get pro- 
visions without the good-will of the Kirkwall folks. 
If we remain here longer, the Halcyon frigate will 
be down upon us — she was seen off Peterhead two 
days since, — and we shall hang up at the yard-arm 
to be sun-dried. Now, Captain Cleveland will get 
us out of the hobble, if any can. He can play the 
gentleman with these Kirkwall folks, and knows 
how to deal with them on fair terms, and foul, too, 
if there be occasion for it.” 

under the table where he sat drinking with his messmates, 
wounded one man severely, and thought the matter a good jest. 
What is still more extraordinary, his crew regarded it in the same 
light. 

1 A ship going fast through the sea is said to cut a feather, 
alluding to the rip])le which she throws off from her bows. 


2o8 


THE PIRATE. 


“And so you would turn honest Captain Goffe 
a-grazing, would ye?” said an old weatherbeaten 
pirate, who had but one eye ; “ what though he has 
his humours, and made my eye dowse the glim in 
his fancies and frolics, he is as honest a man as 
ever walked a quarter-deck, for all that ; and d — n 
me but I stand by him so long as t’other lantern is 
lit!” 

“Why, you would not hear me out,” said Hawkins; 
“ a man might as well talk to so many negers ! — I 
tell you, I propose that Cleveland shall only be 
Captain from one, post meridiem, to five a. m., dur- 
ing which time Goffe is always drunk.” 

The Captain of whom he last spoke gave sufficient 
proof of the truth of his words, by uttering an inar- 
ticulate growl, and attempting to present a pistol at 
the mediator Hawkins. 

“ Why, look ye now ! ” said Derrick, “ there is all 
the sense he has, to get drunk on council-day, like 
one of these poor silly fellows ! ” 

“Ay,” said Bunce, “drunk as Davy’s sow, in the 
face of the field, the fray, and the senate ! ” 

“ But, nevertheless,” continued Derrick, “ it will 
never do to have two captains in the same day. I 
think week about might suit better — and let Cleve- 
land take the first turn.” 

“There are as good here as any of them,” said 
Hawkins ; “ howsomdever, I object nothing to Cap- 
tain Cleveland, and I think he may help us into 
deep water as well as another.” 

“ Ay,” exclaimed Bunce, “ and a better figure he 
will make at bringing these Kirkwallers to order 
than his sober predecessor ! — So Captain Cleveland 
for ever ! ” 

“ Stop, gentlemen,” said Cleveland, who had hith- 









1 


t 


J 


» 


4 



K 


1 


. > • 


I 






i 


t 


I 




t. 


s 


\ 




I 

/ 




« 


\ 



• 1 


•a 




.-i 


] 


t 




\ 

4 


r'. 

«• 


• y 


^ 4 '.. 


* 


j 


r 

* 

’ • : • ' ' '■ 

• ' • ‘V/' k'r 


‘ * 




« 

It 


} • 

'' 1 

/• 
f - 


> 4< 

I 

4 


\ ' 1 




& 

« 


' , ' ■ V . . v,,. ■• * 


« 

I 

• ■ .1 


■ , , . I 


4 • • 




I 


I 


* 


* 


' t . 

1 

^ , V . . ■ • 

' • % 

'• r 

r 

'1 


t 


I 


i 




< 


*> 


> 


t 



I 


I 


« 


I 


/ 


f 


f . 


« 


* 


r 


'C* V 



1 


THE PIRATE. 


209 


erto been silent ; “ I hope yooi will not choose me 
Captain without my own consent ? ” 

“ Ay, by the blue vault of heaven will we,” said 
Bunce, if it be pro bono publico ! ” 

“ But hear me, at least,” said Cleveland — “ I do 
consent to take command of the vessel, since you 
wish it, and because I see you will ill get out of the 
scrape without me.” 

“ Why, then. I say, Cleveland for ever, again ! ” 
shouted Bunce. 

“ Be quiet, prithee, dear Bunce ! — honest Alta- 
mont ! ” said Cleveland. — “I undertake the busi- 
ness on this condition ; that, when I have got the 
ship cleared for her voyage, with provisions, and so 
forth, you will be content to restore Captain Goffe 
to the command, as I said before, and put me ashore 
somewhere, to shift for myself — You will then be 
sure it is impossible I can betray you, since I will 
remain with you to the last moment.” 

" Ay, and after the last moment, too, by the blue 
vault ! or I mistake the matter,” muttered Bunce to 
himself. 

The matter was now put to the vote ; and so con- 
fident were the crew in Cleveland’s superior address 
and management, that the temporary deposition of 
Goffe found little resistance even among his own 
partisans, who reasonably enough observed, “ he 
might at least have kept sober to look after his 
own business — E’en let him put it to rights again 
himself next morning, if he will.” 

But when the next morning came, the drunken 
part of the crew, being informed of the issue of the 
deliberations of the council, to which they were vir- 
tually held to have assented, showed such a superior 
sense of Cleveland’s merits, that Goffe, sulky and 

VOL. II — 14 


210 


THE PIRATE. 


malecontent as he was, judged it wisest for the 
present to suppress his feelings of resentment, until 
a safer opportunity for suffering them to explode, 
and to submit to the degradation which so fre- 
quently took place among a piratical crew. 

Cleveland, on his part, resolved to take upon him, 
with spirit and without loss of time, the task of ex- 
tricating his ship’s company from their perilous situ- 
ation. Tor this purpose, he ordered the boat, with 
the purpose of going ashore in person, carrying with 
him twelve of the stoutest and best men of the 
crew, all very handsomely appointed, (for the suc- 
cess of their nefarious profession had enabled the 
pirates to assume nearly as gay dresses as their 
officers,) and above all, each man being sufficiently 
armed with cutlass and pistols, and several having 
pole-axes and poniards. 

Cleveland himself was gallantly attired in a blue 
coat, lined with crimson silk, and laced with gold 
very richly, crimson damask waistcoat and breeches, 
a velvet cap, richly embroidered, with a white feather, 
white silk stockings, and red-heeled shoes, which 
were the extremity of finery among the gallants of 
the day. He had a gold chain several times folded 
round his neck, which sustained a whistle of the 
same metal, the ensign of his authority. Above 
all, he wore a decoration peculiar to those daring 
depredators, who, besides one, or perhaps two brace 
of pistols at their belt, had usually two additional 
brace, of the finest mounting and workmanship, sus- 
pended over their shoulders in a sort of sling or 
scarf of crimson ribbon. The hilt and mounting of 
the Captain’s sword corresponded in value to the rest 
of his appointments, and his natural good mien was 
so well adapted to the whole equipment, that, when 


THE PIRATE. 


21 


he appeared on deck, he was received with a general 
shout by the crew, who, as in other popular societies, 
judged a great deal by the eye. 

Cleveland took with him in the boat, amongst 
others, his predecessor in office, Goffe, who was also 
very richly dressed, but who, not having the advan- 
tage of such an exterior as Cleveland’s, looked like 
a boorish* clown in the dress of a courtier, or rather 
like a vulgar-faced footpad decked in the spoils of 
some one whom he has murdered, and whose claim 
to the property of his garments is rendered doubtful 
in the eyes of all who look upon him, by the mixture 
of awkwardness, remorse, cruelty, and insolence, 
which clouds his countenance. Cleveland probably 
chose to take Goffe ashore with him, to prevent his 
having any opportunity, during his absence, to de- 
bauch the crew from their allegiance. In this guise 
they left the ship, and, singing to their oars, while 
the water foamed higher at the chorus, soon reached 
the quay of Kirkwall. 

The command of the vessel was in the meantime 
intrusted to Bunce, upon whose allegiance Cleve- 
land knew that he might perfectly depend, and, in 
a private conversation with him of some length, he 
gave him directions how to act in such emergencies 
as might occur. 

These arrangements being made, and Bunce having 
been repeatedly charged to stand upon his guard 
alike against the adherents of Goffe and any attempt 
from the shore, the boat put off. As she approached 
the harbour, Cleveland displayed a white flag, and 
could observe that their appearance seemed to oc- 
casion a good deal of bustle and alarm. People were 
seen running to and fro, and some of them appeared 
^o be getting under arms. The battery was manned 


212 


THE PIRATE. 


Rastuy, and the English colours displayed. These 
were alarming symptoms, the rather that Cleveland 
knew, that, though there were no artillerymen in 
Kirkwall, yet there were many sailors perfectly com- 
petent to the management of great guns, and willing 
enough to undertake such service in case of need. 

Noting these hostile preparations with a heedful 
eye, but suffering nothing like doubt or Anxiety to 
appear on his countenance, Cleveland ran the boat 
right for the quay, on which several people, armed 
with muskets, rifles, and fowlingpieces, and others 
with half-pikes and whaling-knives, were now as- 
sembled, as if to oppose his landing. Apparently, 
however, they had not positively determined what 
measures they were to pursue ; for, when the boat 
reached the quay, those immediately opposite bore 
back, and suffered Cleveland and his party to leap 
ashore without hinderance. They immediately drew 
up on the quay, except two, who, as their Captain 
had commanded, remained in the boat, which they 
put off to a little distance ; a manoeuvre which, 
while it placed the boat (the only one belonging to 
the sloop) out of danger of being seized, indicated 
a sort of careless confidence in Cleveland and his 
party, which was calculated to intimidate their 
opponents. 

The Kirk wallers, however, showed the old North- 
ern blood, put a manly face upon the matter, and 
stood upon the quay, with their arms shouldered, 
directly opposite to the rovers, and blocking up 
against them the street which leads to the town. 

Cleveland was the first who spoke, as the parties 
stood thus looking upon each other. - — How is this, 
gentlemen burghers?” he said; *‘are you Orkney 
folks turned Highlandmen, that you are all under 


THE PIRATE. 


213 


arms so early this morning ; or have you manned 
the quay to give me the honour of a salute, upon 
taking the command of my ship ? ” 

The burghers looked on each other, and one of 
them replied to Cleveland — “ We do not know who 
you are ; it was that other man,” pointing to Goffe, 
“ who used to come ashore as Captain.” 

“ That other gentleman is my mate, and com- 
mands in my absence,” said Cleveland ; — “ but what 
is that to the purpose ? I wish to speak with your 
Lord Mayor, or whatever you call him.” 

“ The Provost is sitting in council with the Mag- 
istrates,” answered the spokesman. 

“ So much the better,” replied Cleveland. — 
“Where do their Worships meet ? ” 

“ In the Council-house,” answered the other. 

“ Then make way for us, gentlemen, if you please, 
for my people and I are going there.” 

There was a whisper among the townspeople ; but 
several were unresolved upon engaging in a des- 
perate, and perhaps an unnecessary conflict, with 
desperate men; and the more determined citizens 
formed the hasty reflection that the strangers might 
be more easily mastered in the house, or perhaps in 
the narrow streets which they had to traverse, than 
when they stood drawn up and prepared for battle 
upon the quay. They suffered them, therefore, to 
proceed unmolested ; and Cleveland, moving very 
slowly, keeping his people close together, suffering 
no one to press upon the flanks of his little de- 
tachment, and making four men, who constituted 
his rear-guard, turn round and face to the rear 
from time to time, rendered it, by his caution, a 
very dangerous task to make any attempt upon 
them. 


214 


THE PIRATE. 


In this manner they ascended the narrow street 
and reached the Council-house, where the Magis- 
trates were actually sitting, as the citizen had in- 
formed Cleveland. Here the inhabitants began to 
press forward, with the purpose of mingling with 
the pirates, and availing themselves of the crowd 
in the narrow entrance, to secure as many as they 
could, without allowing them room for the free use 
of their weapons. But this also had Cleveland fore- 
seen, and, ere entering the council-room, he caused 
the entrance to be cleared and secured, commanding 
four of his men to face down the street, and as many 
to confront the crowd who were thrusting each other 
from above. The burghers recoiled back from the 
ferocious, swarthy, and sunburnt countenances, as 
well as the levelled arms of these desperadoes, and 
Cleveland, with the rest of his party, entered the 
council-room, where the Magistrates were sitting in 
council, with very little attendance. These gentle- 
men were thus separated effectually from the citizens, 
who looked to them for orders, and were perhaps 
more completely at the mercy of Cleveland, than 
he, with his little handful of men, could be said 
to be at that of the multitude by whom they were 
surrounded. 

The Magistrates seemed sensible of their danger ; 
for they looked upon each other in some confusion, 
when Cleveland thus addressed them : — 

“ Good morrow, gentlemen, — I hope there is 
no unkindness betwixt us. I am come to talk with 
you about getting supplies for my ship yonder in 
the roadstead — we cannot sail without them.” 

“ Your ship, sir ? ” said the Provost, who was a 
man of sense and spirit, — “ how do we know that 
you are her Captain ? ” 


THE PIRATE. 


215 


“Look at me,” said Cleveland, “and you will, 
I think, scarce ask the question again.” 

The Magistrate looked at him, and accordingly 
did not think proper to pursue that part of the 
enquiry, but proceeded to say — “And if you are 
her Captain, whence comes she, and where is she 
bound for ? You look too much like a man-of-war’s 
man to be master of a trader, and we know that you 
do not belong to the British navy.” 

“There are more men-of-war on the sea than 
sail under the British flag,” replied Cleveland ; “ hut 
say that I were commander of a free-trader here, 
willing to exchange tobacco, brandy, gin, and such 
like, for cured fish and hides, why, I do not think 
I deserve so very bad usage from the merchants of 
Kirkwall as to deny me provisions for my money ? ” 

“ Look you. Captain,” said the Town-clerk, “ it 
is not that we are so very strait-laced neither — for, 
when gentlemen of your cloth come this way, it is 
as weel, as I tauld the Provost, just to do as the 
collier did when he met the devil, — and that is, to 
have naething to say to them, if they have naetbing 
to say to us ; — and there is the gentleman,” point- 
ing to Gofle, “that was Captain before you, and 
may he Captain after you,” — (“ The cuckold speaks 
truth in that,” muttered Goffe,) — “ he knows well 
how handsomely we entertained him, till he and his 
men took upon them to run through the town like 
hellicat devils. — I see one of them there ! — that was 
the very fellow that stopped my servant-wench on 
the street, as she carried the lantern home before 
me, and insulted her before my face ! ” 

“ If it please your noble Mayorship’s honour 
and glory,” said Derrick, the fellow at whom the 
Town-clerk pointed, “ it was not I that brought-to 


2I6 


THE PIRATE. 


the bit of a tender that carried the lantern in the 
poop — it was quite a different sort of a person.” 

“ Who was it, then, sir ? ” said the Provost. 

“ Why, please your majesty’s worship,” said 
Derrick, making several sea bows, and describing 
as nearly as he could, the exterior of the worthy 
Magistrate himself, “ he was an elderly gentleman, 
— Dutch-built, round in the stern, with a white wig 
and a red nose — very like your majesty, I think ; ” 
then, turning to a comrade, he added, “Jack, don’t 
you think the fellow that wanted to kiss the pretty 
girl with the lantern t’other night, was very like his 
worship ? ” 

“ By G — , Tom Derrick,” answered the party 
appealed to, “ I believe it is the very man ! ” 

“ This is insolence which we can make you re- 
pent of, gentlemen ! ” said the Magistrate, justly 
irritated at their effrontery; “you have behaved 
in this town, as if you were in an Indian village at 
Madagascar. You yourself. Captain, if captain you 
be, were at the head of another riot, no longer since 
than yesterday. We will give you no provisions 
till we know better whom we are supplying. And 
do not think to bully us; when I shake this hand- 
kerchief out at the window, which is at my elbow, 
your ship goes to the bottom. Eemember she lies 
under the guns of our battery.” 

“ And how many of these guns are honeycombed, 
Mr. Mayor ? ” said Cleveland. He put the question 
by chance ; but instantly perceived, from a sort of 
confusion which the Provost in vain endeavoured to 
hide, that the artillery of Kirkwall was not in the 
best order. “Come, come, Mr. Mayor,” he said, 
“bullying will go down with us as little as with 
you. Your guns yonder will do more harm to the 


THE PIRATE. 


217 


poor old sailors who are to work them than to our 
sloop ; and if we bring a broadside to bear on the 
town, why, your wives’ crockery will he in some 
danger. And then to talk to us of seamen being a 
little frolicsome ashore, why, when are they other- 
wise ? You have the Greenland whalers playing 
the devil among you every now and then ; and the 
very Dutchmen cut capers in the streets of Kirk- 
wall, like porpoises before a gale of wind. I am 
told you are a man of sense, and I am sure you 
and I could settle this matter in the course of a 
five-minutes’ palaver.” 

“Well, sir,” said the Provost, “I will hear what 
you have to say, if you will walk this way.” 

Cleveland accordingly followed him into a small 
interior apartment, and, when there, addressed the 
Provost thus : “ I will lay aside my pistols, sir, if 
you are afraid of them.” 

“D — n your pistols!” answered the Provost, 
“ I have served the King, and fear the smell of 
powder as little as you do ! ” 

“ So much the better,” said Cleveland, “ for you 
will hear me the more coolly. — Now, sir, let us be 
what perhaps you suspect us, or let us be any thing 
else, what, in the name of Heaven, can you get by 
keeping us here, hut blows and bloodshed ? For 
which, believe me, we are much better provided 
than you can pretend to be. The point is a plain 
one — you are desirous to be rid of us — we are 
desirous to be gone. Let us have the means of de- 
parture, and we leave you instantly.” 

“ Look ye. Captain,” said the Provost, “ I thirst 
for no man’s blood. You are a pretty fellow, as 
there were many among the buccaniers in my time 
— but there is no harm in wishing you a better trade. 


2i8 


THE PIRATE. 


You should have the stores and welcome, for your 
money, so you would make these seas clear of you. 
But then, here lies the rub. The Halcyon frigate 
is expected here in these parts immediately ; when 
she hears of you she will be at you ; for there is 
nothing the white lapelle loves better than a rover 
— you are seldom without a cargo of dollars. Well, 
he comes down, gets you under his stern ” 

“Blows us into the air, if you please,” said 
Cleveland. 

Nay, that must be as you please. Captain,” said 
the Provost; "‘but then, what is to come of the 
good town of Kirkwall, that has been packing and 
peeling with the King’s enemies ? The burgh will 
be laid under a round fine, and it may be that the 
Provost may not come off so easily.” 

“ Well, then,” said Cleveland, “ I see where your 
pinch lies. Now, suppose that I run round this 
island of yours, and get into the roadstead at Strom- 
ness ? We could get what we want put on board 
there, without Kirkwall or the Provost seeming to 
have any hand in it ; or, if it should be ever ques- 
tioned, your want of force, and our superior strength, 
will make a sufficient apology.” 

“ That may be,” said the Provost ; “ but if I suffer 
you to leave your present station, and go elsewhere, 
I must have some security that you will not do harm 
to the country.” 

“And we,” said Cleveland, “must have some 
security on our side, that you will not detain us, 
by dribbling out our time till the Halcyon is on the 
coast. Now, I am myself perfectly willing to conti- 
nue on shore as a hostage, on the one side, provided 
you will give me your word not to betray me, and 
send some magistrate, or person of consequence. 


THE PIRATE. 


219 


aboard the sloop, where his safety will he a guaran- 
tee for mine.” 

The Provost shook his head, and intimated it 
would be difficult to find a person willing to place 
himself as hostage in such a perilous condition ; hut 
said he would propose the arrangement to such of 
the .council as were fit to be trusted with a matter 
of such weight. 


CHAPTER XV. 


" I left my poor plough to go ploughing the deep ! ” 

Dibdin. 


When the Provost and Cleveland had returned 
into the public council-room, the former retired a 
second time with such of his brethren as he thought 
proper to advise with ; and, while they were en- 
gaged in discussing Cleveland’s proposal, refresh- 
ments were offered to him and his party. These the 
Captain permitted his people to partake of, but 
with the greatest precaution against surprisal, one 
party relieving the guard, whilst the others were at 
their food. 

He himself, in the meanwhile, walked up and 
down the apartment, and conversed upon indifferent 
subjects with those present, like a person quite at 
his ease. 

Amongst these individuals he saw, somewhat to 
his surprise, Triptolemus Yellowley, who, chancing 
to be at Kirkwall, had been summoned by the Ma- 
gistrates, as representative, in a certain degree, of 
the Lord Chamberlain, to attend council on this 
occasion. Cleveland immediately renewed the ac- 
quaintance which he had formed with the agri- 
culturist at Burgh- Westra, and asked him his pres- 
ent business in Orkney. 

“Just to look after some of my little plans, Cap- 
tain Cleveland. I am weary of fighting with wild 


THE PIUATE. 


221 


beasts at Ephesus yonder, and I just cam ower to 
see how my orchard was thriving, whilk I had 
planted four or five miles from Kirkwall, it may 
be a year bygane, and how the bees were thriving, 
whereof I had imported nine skeps, for the im- 
provement of the country, and for the turning of 
the heather-bloom into wax and honey.” 

And they thrive, I hope ? ” said Cleveland, who, 
however little interested in the matter, sustained 
the conversation, as if to break the chilly and em- 
barrassed silence which hung upon the company 
assembled. 

“ Thrive ! ” replied Triptolemus ; “ they thrive 
like every thing else, in this country, and that is the 
backward way.” 

“ Want of care, I suppose ? ” said Cleveland. 

“ The contrary, sir, quite and clean the contrary,” 
replied the Factor ; “ they died of ower muckle care, 
like Lucky Christie’s chickens. — I asked to see the 
skeps, and cunning and joyful did the fallow look 
who was to have taken care of them — ‘ Had there 
been ony body in charge but mysell,’ he said, ‘ ye 
might have seen the skeps, or whatever you ca’ 
them ; but there wad hae been as mony solan-geese 
as flees in them, if it hadna been for my four quar- 
ters ; for I watched them so closely, that I saw 
them a’ creeping out at the little holes one sunny 
morning, and if I had not stopped the leak on the 
instant with a bit clay, the deil a bee, or flee, or 
whatever they are, would have been left in the 
skeps, as ye ca’ them ! ’ — In a word, sir, he had 
clagged up the hives, as if the puir things had had 
the pestilence, and my bees were as dead as if they 
had been smeaked — and so ends my hope, gene- 
randi gloria mellis, as Virgilius hath it” 


222 


THE PIRATE. 


“ There is an end of your mead, then,” replied 
Cleveland ; “ but what is your chance of cider ? — 
How does the orchard thrive ? ” 

“ 0 Captain ! this same Solomon of the Orca- 
dian Ophir — I am sure no man need to send thither 
to fetch either talents of gold or talents of sense ! 
— I say, this wise man had watered the young 
apple-trees, in his great tenderness, with hot water, 
and they are perished, root and branch ! But what 
avails grieving ? — And I wish you would tell me, 
instead, what is all the din that these good folks are 
making about pirates ? and what for all these ill- 
looking men, that are armed like so mony High- 
landmen, assembled in the judgment-chamber ? — 
for I am just come from the other side of the island, 
and I have heard nothing distinct about it. — And, 
now I look at you yoursell. Captain, I think you 
have mair of these foolish pistolets about you than 
should suffice an honest man in quiet times ? ” 

“And so I think, too,” said the pacific Triton, 
old Haagen, who had been an unwilling follower 
of the daring Montrose; “if you had been in the 
Glen of Edderachyllis, when we were sae sair wor- 
ried by Sir John Worry ” 

“ You have forgot the whole matter, neighbour 
Haagen,” said the Factor; “Sir John Urry was 
on your side, and was ta’en with Montrose ; by the 
same token, he lost his head.” 

“ Did he ? ” said the Triton. — “I believe you 
may be right ; for he changed sides mair than anes, 
and wha kens whilk he died for ? — But always he 
was there, and so was I ; — a fight there was, and I 
never wish to see another ! ” 

The entrance of the Provost here interrupted 
their desultory conversation. — “ We have deter- 


THE PIRATE. 


223 


mined,” he said, Captain, that your ship shall go 
round to Stromness, or Scalpa-flow, to take in stores, 
in order that there may be no more quarrels be- 
tween the Fair folks and your seamen. And as you 
wish to stay on shore to see the Fair, we intend to 
send a respectable gentleman on board your vessel 
to pilot her round the Mainland, as the navigation 
is but ticklish.” 

“ Spoken like a quiet and sensible magistrate, 
Mr. Slayor,” said Cleveland, “ and no otherwise 
than as I expected. — And what gentleman is to 
honour our quarter-deck during my absence ? ” 

“We have fixed that, too, Captain Cleveland,” 
said the Provost ; “ you may be sure we were each 
more desirous than another to go upon so pleasant 
a voyage, and in such good company ; but being 
Fair time, most of us have some affairs in hand — 
I myself, in respect of my office, cannot be well 
spared — the eldest Bailie’s wife is lying-in — the 
Treasurer does not agree with the sea — two Bailies 
have the gout — the other two are absent from town 
— and the other fifteen members of council are all 
engaged on particular business.” 

“ All that I can tell you, Mr. Mayor,” said Cleve- 
land, raising his voice, “ is, that I expect” 

“A moment’s patience, if you please. Captain,” 
said the Provost, interrupting him — “ So that we 
have come to the resolution that our worthy Mr. 
Triptolemus Yellowley, who is Factor to the Lord 
Chamberlain of these islands, shall, in respect of 
his official situation, be preferred to the honour and 
pleasure of accompanying you.” 

“ Me ! ” said the astonished Triptolemus ; “ what 
the devil should I do going on your voyages ?*-' 
my business is on dry land 1 ** 


224 


THE PIRATE. 


The gentlemen want a pilot, ” said the Provost, 
whispering to him, “ and there is no eviting to give 
them one.” 

“ Do they want to go bump on shore, then ? ” said 
the Factor — “how the devil should I pilot them, 
that never touched rudder in my life ? ” 

“ Hush ! — hush ! — be silent ! ” said the Provost ; 
“ if the people of this town heard ye say such a 
word, your utility, and respect, and rank, and every 
thing else, is clean gone ! — No man is any thing 
with us island folks, unless he can hand, reef, and 
steer. — Besides, it is but a mere form ; and we 
will send old Pate Sinclair to help you. You will 
have nothing to do but to eat, drink, and be merry 
all day.” 

“ Eat and drink ! ” said the Factor, not able to 
comprehend exactly why this piece of duty was 
pressed upon him so hastily, and yet not very cap- 
able of resisting or extricating himself from the 
toils of the more knowing Provost — “ Eat and 
drink ? — that is all very well ; but, to speak truth, 
the sea does not agree with me any more than with 
the Treasurer ; and I have always a better appetite 
for eating and drinking ashore.” 

“ Hush ! hush ! hush ! ” again said the Provost, 
in an under tone of earnest expostulation ; “ would 
you actually ruin your character out and out ? — A 
Factor of the High Chamberlain of the Isles of Ork- 
ney and Zetland, and not like the sea ! — you might 
as well say you are a Highlander, and do not like 
whisky ! ” 

“You must settle it somehow, gentlemen,” said 
Captain Cleveland ; “ it is time we were under 
weigh. — Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley, are we to be 
honoured with your company ? ” 


THE PIRATE. 


225 


“ I am sure, Captain Cleveland,” stammered the 
Factor, “I would have no objection to go anywhere 
with you — only ” 

“ He has no objection,” said the Provost, catch- 
ing at the first limb of the sentence, without await- 
ing the conclusion. 

“ He has no objection,” cried the Treasurer. 

He has no objection,” sung out the whole four 
Bailies together ; and the fifteen Councillors, all 
catching up the same phrase of assent, repeated it in 
chorus, with the additions of — “good man ” — “ pub- 
lic-spirited ” — “ honourable gentleman ” — “ burgh 
eternally obliged ” — “ where will you find such a 
worthy Factor ?” and so forth. 

Astonished and confused at the praises with which 
he was overwhelmed on all sides, and in no shape 
understanding the nature of the transaction that 
was going forward, the astounded and overwhelmed 
agriculturist became incapable of resisting the part 
of the Kirkwall Curtins thus insidiously forced upon 
him, and was delivered up by Captain Cleveland to 
his party, with the strictest injunctions to treat him 
with honour and attention. Goffe and his compan- 
ions began now to lead him off, amid the applauses 
of the whole meeting, after the manner in which the 
victim of ancient days was garlanded and greeted 
by shouts, when consigned to the priests, for the 
purpose of being led to the altar, and knocked on 
the head, a sacrifice for the commonweal. It was 
while they thus conducted, and in a manner forced 
him out of the Council-chamber, that poor Tripto- 
lemus, much alarmed at finding that Cleveland, in 
whom he had some confidence, was to remain be- 
hind the party, tried, when just going out at the 
door, the effect of one remonstrating bellow. — “Nay, 

VOL. II. — 15 


226 


THE PIRATE. 


but, Provost ! — Captain ! — Bailies ! — Treasurer I 
Councillors ! — if Captain Cleveland does not go 
aboard to protect me, it is nae bargain, and go I 
will not, unless I am trailed with cart-ropes ! ” 

His protest was, however, drowned in the unani- 
mous chorus of the Magistrates and Councillors, 
returning him thanks for his public spirit — wish- 
ing him a good voyage — and praying to Heaven for 
his happy and speedy return. Stunned and over- 
whelmed, and thinking, if he had any distinct 
thoughts at all, that remonstrance was vain, where 
friends and strangers seemed alike determined to 
carry the point against him, Triptolemus, without 
farther resistance, suffered himself to be conducted 
into the street, where the pirate’s boat’s-crew, assem- 
bling around him, began to move slowly towards 
the quay, many of the townsfolk following out of 
curiosity, but without any attempt at interference 
or annoyance ; for the pacific compromise which the 
dexterity of the first Magistrate had achieved, was 
unanimously approved of as a much better settlement 
of the disputes betwixt them and the strangers, 
than might have been attained by the dubious issue 
of an appeal to arms. 

Meanwhile, as they went slowly along, Tripto- 
lemus had time to study the appearance, counte- 
nance, and dress, of those into whose hands he had 
been thus delivered, and began to imagine that he 
read in their looks, not only the general expression 
of a desperate character, but some sinister inten- 
tions directed particularly towards himself. He 
was alarmed by the truculent looks of Goffe, in par- 
ticular, who, holding his arm with a gripe which 
resembled in delicacy of touch the compression of 
a smith’s vice, cast on him from the outer corner of 


THE TIRATE. 


427 


his eye oblique glances, like those which the eagle 
throws upon the prey which she has clutched, ere 
yet she proceeds, as it is technically called, to plume 
it. At length Yellowley’s fears got so far the better 
of his prudence, that he fairly asked his terrible 
conductor, in a sort of crying whisper, “Are you 
going to murder me. Captain, in the face of the 
laws baith of God and man ? ” 

“ Hold your peace, if you are wise,” said Goffe, 
who had his own reasons for desiring to increase 
the panic of his captive ; “ we have not murdered 
a man these three months, and why should you put 
us in mind of it ? ” 

“You are but joking, I hope, good worthy Cap- 
tain ! ” replied Triptolemus. “ This is worse than 
witches, dwarfs, dirking of whales, and cowping of 
cobles, put all together ! — this is an ‘away-ganging 
crop, with a vengeance ! — What good, in Heaven’s 
name, would murdering me do to you ? ” 

“ We might have some pleasure in it, at least,” 
said Goffe. — “Look these fellows in the face, and 
see if you see one among them that would not 
rather kill a man than let it alone ? — But we will 
speak more of that when you have first had a taste 
of the bilboes — unless, indeed, you come down with 
a handsome round handful of Chili boards^ for 
your ransom.” 

“As I shall live by bread. Captain,” answered 
the Factor, “ that misbegotten dwarf has carried off 
the whole hornful of silver ! ” 

“ A cat-and-nine-tails will make you find it 
again,” said Goffe, gruffly ; “ flogging and pickling 
is an excellent receipt to bring a man’s wealth into 
his mind — twisting a bowstring round his skull till 
1 Commonly called by landsmen, Spanish dollars. 


228 


THE PIRATE. 


the eyes start a little, is a very good remembrancer 
too.” 

“Captain,” replied Yellowley, stoutly, *‘I have 
no money — seldom can improvers have. We turn 
pasture to tillage, and barley into aits, and heather 
into greensward, and the poor yarpha, as the be- 
nighted creatures here call their peat-bogs, into 
baittle grass-land ; but we seldom make any thing 
of it that comes back to our ain pouch. The carles 
and the cart-avers make it all, and the carles and 
the cart-avers eat it all,^ and the deil clink doun 
with it ! ” 

“Well, well,” said Goffe, “if you be really a 
poor fellow, as you pretend, ITl stand your friend ; ” 
then, inclining his head so as to reach the ear of 
the Factor, who stood on tiptoe with anxiety, he 
said, “ If you love your life, do not enter the boat 
with us.” 

“ But how am I to get away from you, while you 
hold me so fast by the arm, that I could not get off 
if the whole year’s crop of Scotland depended on 
it?” 

“ Hark ye, you gudgeon,” said Goffe, “ just when 
you come to the water’s edge, and when the fellows 
are jumping in and taking their oars, slue yourself 
round suddenly to the larboard — I will let go your 
arm — and then cut and run for your life ! ” 

Triptolemus did as he was desired, Goffe’s will- 
ing hand relaxed the grasp as he had promised, the 
agriculturist trundled off like a football that has 
just received a strong impulse from the foot of one 
of the players, and, with celerity which surprised 
himself as well as all beholders, fled through the 
town of Kirkwall. Nay, such was the impetus of 
his retreat, that, as if the grasp of the pirate was 


THE PIHATE. 


229 


still open to pounce upon him, he never stopped till 
he had traversed the whole town, and attained the 
open country on the other side. They who had 
seen him that day — his hat and wig lost in the 
sudden effort he had made to bolt forward, his cravat 
awry, and his waistcoat unbuttoned, — and who had 
an opportunity of comparing his round spherical 
form and short legs with the portentous speed at 
which he scoured through the street, might well 
say, that if Fury ministers arms. Fear confers wings. 
His very mode of running seemed to be that pecu- 
liar to his fleecy care, for, like a ram in the midst of 
his race, he ever and anon encouraged himself by 
a great bouncing attempt at a leap, though there 
were no obstacles in his way. 

There was no pursuit after the agriculturist ; and 
though a musket or two were presented, for the pur- 
pose of sending a leaden messenger after him, yet 
Goffe, turning peace-maker for once in his life, so 
exaggerated the dangers that would attend a breach 
of the truce with the people of Kirkwall, that he 
prevailed upon the boat’s crew to forbear any active 
hostilities, and to pull off for their vessel with all 
dispatch. 

The burghers, who regarded the escape of Trip- 
tolemus as a triumph on their side, gave the boat 
three cheers, by way of an insulting farewell ; while 
the Magistrates, on the other hand, entertained 
great anxiety respecting the probable consequences 
of this breach of articles between them and the 
pirates ; and, could they have seized upon the 
fugitive very privately, instead of complimenting 
him with a civic feast in honour of the agility 
which he displayed, it is likely they might have de- 
livered the runaway hostage once more into the 


230 


THE PIRATE. 


hands of his foemen. But it was impossible to set 
their face publicly to such an act of violence, and 
therefore they contented themselves with closely 
watching Cleveland, whom they determined to make 
responsible for any aggression which might be at- 
tempted by the pirates. Cleveland, on hte part, 
easily conjectured that the motive which Goffe had 
for suffering the hostage to escape, was to leave him 
answerable for all consequences, and, relying more 
on the attachment and intelligence of his friend and 
adherent, Frederick Altamont, alias Jack Bunce, 
than on any thing else, expected the result with 
considerable anxiety, since the Magistrates, though 
they continued to treat him with civility, plainly in- 
timated they would regulate his treatment by the 
behaviour of the crew, though he no longer com- 
manded them. 

It was not, however, without some reason that he 
reckoned on the devoted fidelity of Bunce; for no 
sooner did that trusty adherent receive from Goffe, 
and the boat’s crew, the news of the escape of Trip- 
tolemus, than he immediately concluded it had been 
favoured by the late Captain, in order that, Cleve- 
land being either put to death or consigned to 
hopeless imprisonment, Goffe might be called upon 
to resume the command of the vessel. 

“ But the drunken old boatswain shall miss his 
mark,” said Bunce to his confederate Fletcher ; “ or 
else I am contented to quit the name of Altamont, 
and be called Jack Bunce, or Jack Dunce, if you 
like it better, to the end of the chapter.” 

Availing himself accordingly of a sort of nauti- 
cal eloquence, which his enemies termed slack-jaw, 
Bunce set before the crew, in a most animated man- 
ner, the disgrace which they all sustained, by their 


THE PIRATE. 


231 


Captain remaining, as he was pleased to term it, in 
the bilboes, without any hostage to answer for his 
safety ; and succeeded so far, that, besides exciting 
a good deal of discontent against Goffe, he brought 
the crew to the resolution of seizing the first vessel 
of a tolerable appearance, and declaring that the 
ship, crew, and cargo, should be dealt with accord- 
ing to the usage which Cleveland should receive on 
shore. It was judged at the same time proper to 
try the .faith of the Orcadians, by removing from 
the roadstead of Kirkwall, and going round to that 
of Stromness, where, according to the treaty betwixt 
Provost Torfe and Captain Cleveland, they were to 
victual their sloop. They resolved, in the mean- 
time, to intrust the command of the vessel to a 
council, consisting of Goffe, the boatswain, and 
Bunce himself, until Cleveland should be in a situa^ 
tion to resume his command. 

These resolutions having been proposed and ac- 
ceded to, they weighed anchor, and got their sloop 
under sail, without experiencing any opposition or 
annoyance from the battery, which relieved them 
of one important apprehension incidental to their 
situation. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


Clap on more sail, pursue, up with your fights, 

Give fire — she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all ! 

Shakspeabb. 

A VERY handsome brig, which, with several other 
vessels, was the property of Magnus Troil, the great 
Zetland Udaller, had received on board that Mag- 
nate himself, his two lovely daughters, and the fa- 
cetious Claud Halcro, who, for friendship's sake 
chiefly, and the love of beauty proper to his poeti- 
cal calling, attended them on their journey from 
Zetland to the capital of Orkney, to which Norna 
had referred them, as the place where her mysti- 
cal oracles should at length receive a satisfactory 
explanation. 

They passed, at a distance, the tremendous cliffs 
of the lonely spot of earth called the Fair Isle, which, 
at an equal distance from either archipelago, lies in 
the sea which divides Orkney from Zetland ; and at 
length, after some baffling winds, made the Start of 
Sanda. Off the headland so named, they became in- 
volved in a strong current, well known, by those 
who frequent these seas, as the Eoost of the Start, 
which carried them considerably out of their course, 
and, joined to an adverse wind, forced them to keep 
on the east side of the island of Stronsa, and, finally 
compelled them to lie by for the night in Papa 
Sound, since the navigation in dark or thick weather, 
amongst so many low islands, is neither pleasant 
^ nor safe. 


THE EIRaTE. 


^33 

On the ensuing morning they resumed their voy- 
age under more favourable auspices ; and, coasting 
along the island of Stronsa, whose flat, verdant, and 
comparatively fertile shores, formed a strong con- 
trast to the dun hills and dark cliffs of their own 
islands, they doubled the cape called the Lamb- 
head, and stood away for Kirkwall. 

They had scarce opened the beautiful bay be- 
twixt Pomona and Shapinsha, and the sisters were 
admiring the massive church of Saint Magnus, as it 
was first seen to rise from amongst the inferior 
buildings of Kirkwall, when the eyes of Magnus, 
and of Claud Halcro, were attracted by an object 
which they thought more interesting. This was an 
armed sloop, with her sails set, which had just left 
the anchorage in the bay, and was running before 
the wind by which the brig of the Udaller was 
beating in. 

“ A tight thing that, by my ancestors’ bones ! ” 
said the old Udaller ; “ but I cannot make out of 
what country, as she shows no colours. Spanish 
built, I should think her.” 

“Ay, ay,” said Claud Halcro, “she has all the 
look of it. She runs before the wind that we must 
battle with, which is the wonted way of the world. 
As glorious John says, — 

‘ With roomy deck, and guns of mighty strength 

Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves. 
Deep in her draught, and warlike in her length. 

She seems a sea- wasp flying on the waves.’ ” 

Brenda could not help telling Halcro, when he 
had spouted this stanza with great enthusiasm, 
that though the description was more like a first- 


THE HRATE. 


234 

rate than a sloop, yet the simile of the sea-wasp 
served but indifferently for either.” 

“ A sea- wasp ? ” said Magnus, looking with some 
surprise, as the sloop, shifting her course, suddenly 
bore down on them : “ Egad, I wish she may not 
show us presently that she has a sting ! ” 

What the Udaller said in jest, was fulfilled in 
earnest ; for, without hoisting colours, or hailing, 
two shots were discharged from the sloop, one of 
which ran dipping and dancing upon the water, 
just ahead of the Zetlander’s bows, while the other 
went through his main -sail. 

Magnus caught up a speaking-trumpet, and hailed 
the sloop, to demand what she was, and what was 
the meaning of this unprovoked aggression. He 
was only answered by the stern command, — “ Down 
top-sails instantly, and lay your main-sail to the 
mast — you shall see who we are presently,” 

There were no means within the reach of possi- 
bility by which obedience could be evaded, where 
it would instantly have been enforced by a broad- 
side ; and, with much fear on the part of the sisters 
and Claud Halcro, mixed with anger and astonish- 
ment on that of the Udaller, the brig lay-to to await 
the commands of the captors. 

The sloop immediately lowered a boat, with six 
armed hands, commanded by Jack Bunce, which 
rowed directly for their prize. As they approached 
her, Claud Halcro whispered to the .Udaller, — “ If 
what we hear of buccaniers be true, these men, with 
their silk scarfs and vests, have the very cut of them.” 

“ My daughters ! my daughters ! ” muttered Mag- 
nus to himself, with such an agony as only a father 
could feel, — “ Go down below, and hide yourselves, 
girls, while I ” 


THE PIRATE. 


235 


He threw down his speaking-trumpet, and seized 
on a handspike, while his daughters, more afraid of 
the consequences of his fiery temper to himself than 
of any thing else, hung round him, and begged him 
to make no resistance. Claud Halcro united his 
entreaties, adding, “ It were best pacify the fellows 
with fair words. They might,” he said, “ be Dun- 
kirkers, or insolent man-of-war’s men on a frolic.” 

“ No, no,” answered Magnus, “ it is the sloop 
which the dagger told us of. But I will take your 
advice — I will have patience for these girls’ sakes ; 
yet ” 

He had no time to conclude the sentence, for 
Bunce jumped on board with his party, and draw- 
ing his cutlass, struck it upon the companion-lad- 
der, and declared the ship was theirs. 

“ By what warrant or authority do you stop us on 
the high seas ? ” said Magnus. 

“ Here are half a dozen of warrants,” said Bunce, 
showing the pistols which were hung round him, 
according to a pirate-fashion already mentioned, 
“choose which you like, old gentleman, and you 
shall have the perusal of it presently.” 

“ That is to say, you intend to rob us ? ” said 
Magnus. — “ So be it — we have no means to help 
it — only be civil to the women, and take what you 
please from the vessel. There is not much, but I will 
and can make it worth more, if you use us well.” 

“ Civil to the women ! ” said Fletcher, who had 
also come on board with the gang — “ when were 
we else than civil to them ? ay, and kind to boot 1 
— Look here. Jack Bunce! — what a trim-going 
little thing here is ! — By G — , she shall make a 
cruize with us, come of old Squaretoes what will ! ” 

He seized upon the terrified Brenda with one 


236 


THE PIRATE. 


hand, and insolently pulled back with the other 
the hood of the mantle in which she had muffled 
herself. 

“ Help, father ! — help, Minna ! ” exclaimed the 
affrighted girl unconscious, at the moment, that 
they were unable to render her assistance. 

Magnus again uplifted the handspike, but Bunce 
stopped his hand. — Avast, father ! ” he said, “ or 
you will make a had voyage of it presently — And 
you, Fletcher, let go the girl ! ” 

“ And, d — n me ! why should I let her go ? ” said 
Fletcher. 

“ Because I command you, Dick,” said the other, 
“and because Fll make it a quarrel else., — And 
now let me know, beauties, is there one of you 
hears that queer heathen name of Minna, for which 
I have a certain sort of regard ? ” 

“ Gallant sir ! ” said Halcro, “ unquestionably it 
is because you have some poetry in your heart.” 

“ I have had enough of it in my mouth in my 
time,” answered Bunce ; “ but that day is by, old 
gentleman — however, I shall soon find out which 
of these girls is Minna. — Throw back your muf- 
flings from your faces, and don’t be afraid, my Lin- 
damiras ; no one here shall meddle with you to do 
you wrong. On my soul, two pretty wenches ! — 
I wish I were at sea in an egg-shell, and a rock 
under my lee-bow, if I would wish a better leaguer- 
lass than the worst of them ! — Hark you, my girls ; 
which of you would like to swing in a rover’s ham- 
mock ? — you should have gold for the gathering !” 

The terrified maidens clung close together, and 
grew pale at the hold and familiar language of the 
desperate libertine. 

“Nay, don’t be frightened,” said he; “no one 


THE PIRATE. 


237 


shall serve under the noble Altamont but by her 
own free choice — there is no pressing amongst 
gentlemen of fortune. And do not look so shy 
upon me neither, as if I spoke of what you never 
thought of before. One of you, at least, has heard 
of Captain Cleveland, the Rover.” 

Brenda grew still paler, but the blood mounted 
at once in Minna’s cheeks, on hearing the name of 
her lover thus unexpectedly introduced ; for the 
scene was in itself so confounding, that the idea of 
the vessel’s being the consort of which Cleveland 
had spoken at Burgh- Westra, had occurred to no 
one save the Udaller. 

“I see how it is,” said Bunco, with a familiar 
nod, “ and I will hold my course accordingly. — 
You need not be afraid of any injury, father,” he 
added, addressing Magnus familiarly ; “ and though 
I have made many a pretty girl pay tribute in my 
time, yet yours shall go ashore without either 
wrong or ransom.” 

“If you wilj assure me of that,” said Magnus, 
“ you are as welcome to the brig and cargo, as ever 
I made man welcome to a can of punch.” 

“ And it is no bad thing that same can of punch,” 
said Bunce, “ if we had any one here that could mix 
it well.” 

“ I will do it,” said Claud Halcro, “ with any 
man that ever squeezed lemon — Eric Scambester, 
the punch-maker of Burgh- Westra, being alone 
excepted.” 

“ And you are within a grapnel’s length of him, 
too,” said the Udaller. — “Go down below, my 
girls,” he added, “and send up the rare old man, 
and the punch-bowl.” 

“The punch-bowl!” said Fletcher; “I say, the 


238 


THE PIRATE. 


bucket, d — n me ! — Talk of bowls in the cabin of a 
paltry merchantman, but not to gentlemen-strollers 
— rovers, I would say,” correcting himself, as he 
observed that Bunce looked sour at the mistake. 

“ And I say, these two pretty girls shall stay on 
deck, and fill my can,” said Bunce; “I deserve 
some attendance, at least, for all my generosity.” 

“ And they shall fill mine, too,” said Fletcher — 
“ they shall fill it to the brim ! — and I will have 
a kiss for every drop they spill — broil me if I 
won’t ! ” 

“ Why, then, I tell you, you shan’t ! ” said Bunce ; 
“ for I’ll be d — d if any one shall kiss Minna but 
one, and that’s neither you nor I ; and her other 
little bit of a consort shall ’scape for company ; — 
there are plenty of willing wenches in Orkney. — 
And so, now I think on it, these girls shall go down 
below, and bolt themselves into the cabin ; and we 
shall have the punch up here on deck, al fresco, as 
the old gentleman proposes.” 

“ Why, Jack, I wish you knew your own mind,” 
said Fletcher ; “ I have been your messmate these 
two years, and I love you ; and yet flay me like a 
wild bullock, if you have not as many humours as 
a monkey ! — And what shall we have to make a 
little fun of, since you have sent the girls down 
below ? ” 

« Why, we will have Master Punch-maker here,” 
answered Bunce, “ to give us toasts, and sing us 
songs. — And, in the meantime, you there, stand 
by sheets and tacks, and get her under way ! — and 
you, steersman, as you would keep your brains in 
your skull, keep her under the stern of the sloop. — 
If you attempt to play us any trick, I will scuttle 
your sconce as if it were an old calabash 1 ” 


THE PIRATE. 


239 


The vessel was accordingly got under way, and 
moved slowly on in the wake of the sloop, which, 
as had been previously agreed upon, held her course, 
not to return to the Bay of Kirkwall, but for an 
excellent roadstead called Inganess Bay, formed by 
a promontory which extends to the eastward two 
or three miles from the Orcadian metropolis, and 
where the vessels might conveniently lie at anchor, 
while the rovers maintained any communication 
with the Magistrates which the new state of things 
seemed to require. 

Meantime Claud Halcro had exerted his utmost 
talents in compounding a bucketful of punch for 
the use of the pirates, which they drank out of large 
cans ; the ordinary seamen, as well as Bunce and 
Fletcher, who acted as officers, dipping them into 
the bucket with very little ceremony, as they came 
and went upon their duty. Magnus, who was par- 
ticularly apprehensive that liquor might awaken the 
brutal passions of these desperadoes, was yet so 
much astonished at the quantities which he saw 
them drink, without producing any visible effect 
upon their reason, that he could not help expressing 
his surprise to Bunce himself, who, wild as he was, 
yet appeared, by far the most civil and conversable 
of his party, and whom he was, perhaps, desirous 
to conciliate, by a compliment of which all boon 
topers know the value. 

“ Bones of Saint Magnus ! ” said the Udaller, “ I 
used to think I took off my can like a gentleman ; 
but to see your men swallow. Captain, one would 
think their stomachs were as bottomless as the hole 
of Laifell in Foula, which I have sounded myself 
with a line of an hundred fathoms. By my soul, the 
Bicker of Saint Magnus were but a sip to them I ” 


THE PIRATE. 


240 

“ In our way of life, sir,” answered Bunce, “ there 
is no stint till duty calls, or the puncjheon is drunk 
out.” 

By my word, sir,” said Claud Halcro, “ I be- 
lieve there is not one of your people but could 
drink out the mickle bicker of Scarpa, which was 
always offered to the Bishop of Orkney brimful of 
the best hummock that ever was brewed.” ^ 

“ If drinking could make them bishops,” said 
Bunce, “ I should have a reverend crew of them ; 
but as they have no other clerical qualities about 
them, I do not propose that they shall get drunk 
to-day ; so we will cut our drink with a song.” 

“ And ITl sing it, by ! ” said or swore Dick 

Fletcher, and instantly struck up the old ditty — 

“ It was a ship, and a ship of fame, 

Launch’d off the stocks, bound for the main, 

With an hundred and fifty brisk young men, 

All pick’d and chosen every one.” 

“ I would sooner be keel-hauled than hear that 
song over again,” said Bunce ; “ and confound your 
lantern jaws, you can squeeze nothing else out of 
them ! ” 

“ By ,” said Fletcher, “ I will sing my song, 

whether you like it or no ; ” and again he sung, with 
the doleful tone of a north-easter whistling through 
sheet and shrouds, — 

“ Captain Glen was our captain’s name ; 

A very gallant and brisk young man; 

As bold a sailor .as e’er went to sea. 

And we were bound for High Barbary.” 

“ I tell you again,” said Bunce, “ we will have 
none of your screech-owl music here ; and I’ll be 

1 Liquor brewed for a Christmas treat. 


THE PIRATE. 241 

d — d if you shall sit here and make that infernal 
noise ! ” 

“ Why, then, I’ll tell you what,” said Fletcher, 
getting up, “ I’ll sing when I walk about, and I hope 
there is no harm in that. Jack Bunce.” And so, 
getting up from his seat, he began to walk up and 
down the sloop, croaking out his long and disastrous 
ballad. 

“ You see how I manage them,” said Bunce, with 
a smile of self-applause — “ allow that fellow two 
strides on his own way, and you make a mutineer of 
him for life. But I tie him strict up, and he fol- 
lows me as kindly as a fowler’s spaniel after he has 
got a good beating. — And now your toast and your 
song, sir,” addressing Halcro ; “ or rather your song 
without your toast. I have got a toast for myself. 
Here is success to all roving blades, and confusion 
to all honest men ! ” 

“ I should be sorry to drink that toast, if I could 
help it,” said Magnus Troil. 

“What! you reckon yourself one of the honest 
folks, I warrant?” said Bunce. — “Tell me your 
trade, and I’ll tell you what I think of it. As for 
the punch-maker here, I knew him at first glance to 
be a tailor, who has, therefore, no more pretensions 
to be honest, than he has not to be mangy. But 
you are some High-Dutch skipper, I warrant me, 
that tramples on the cross when he is in Japan, and 
denies his religion for a day’s gain.” 

“ No,” replied the Udaller, “I am a gentleman of 
Zetland.” 

“ 0, what ! ” retorted the satirical Mr. Bunce, “ you 
are come from the happy climate where gin is a 
groat a-bottle, and where there is daylight for ever ? ” 

“At your service. Captain,” said the Udaller, sup- 

VOL. II. — 16 


THE PIRATE. 


242 

pressing with much pain some disposition to resent 
these jests on his country, although under every risk, 
and at all disadvantage. 

“ At my service ! ” said Bunce — “ Ay, if there 
was a rope stretched from the wreck to the beach, 
you would be at my service to cut the hawser, make 
Jloatsome and jetsome of ship and cargo, and well if 
you did not give me a rap on the head with the hack 
of the cutty-axe ; and you call yourself honest ? 
But never mind — here goes the aforesaid toast — 
and do you sing me a song, Mr. Fashioner ; and look 
it be as good as your punch.” 

Halcro, internally praying for the powers of a new 
Timotheus, to turn his strain and check his auditor’s 
pride, as glorious John had it, began a heart-soothing 
ditty with the following lines : — 

Maidens fresh as fairest rose, 

Listen to this lay of mine.” 

“I will hear nothing of maidens or roses,” said 
Bunce ; “ it puts me in mind what sort of a cargo 

we have got on board ; and, by , I will be true 

to my messmate and my captain as long as I can ! 
— And now I think on’t. I’ll have no more punch 
either — that last cup made innovation, and I am 
not to play Cassio to-night — and if I drink not, no- 
body else shall.” 

So saying, he manfully kicked over the bucket, 
which, notwithstanding the repeated applications 
made to it, was still half full, got up from his seat, 
shook himself a little to rights, as he expressed it, 
cocked his hat, and, walking the quarter-deck with 
an air of dignity, gave, by word and signal, the or- 
ders for bringing the ships to anchor, which were 


THE PIRATE 


243 


readily obeyed by both, Goffe being then, in all prob- 
ability, past any rational state of interference. 

The Udaller, in the meantime, condoled with 
Halcro on their situation. “ It is bad enough,” said 
the tough old Norseman ; “ for these are rank rogues 
— and yet, were it not for the girls, I should not 
fear them. That young vapouring fellow, who seems 
to command, is not such a born devil as he might 
have been.” 

“ He has queer humours, though,” said Halcro ; 
“ and I wish we were loose from him. To kick 
down a bucket half full of the best punch ever was 
made, and to cut me short in the sweetest song I 
ever wrote, — I promise you, I do not know what he 
may do next — it is next door to madness.” 

Meanwhile, the ships being brought to anchor, 
the valiant Lieutenant Bunce called upon Fletcher, 
and, resuming his seat by his unwilling passengers, 
he told them they should see what message he was 
about to send to the wittols of Kirkwall, as they 
were something concerned in it. “ It shall run in 
Dick’s name,” he said, “ as well as in mine. I love 
to give the poor young fellow a little countenance 
now and then — don’t I, Dick, you d— d stupid ass ? ” 

“ Why, yes. Jack Bunce,” said Dick, “ I can’t say 
but as you do — only you are always bullocking one 
about something or other, too — but, howsomdever, 
d’ye see ” 

“ Enough said — belay your jaw, Dick,” said 
Bunce, and proceeded to write his epistle, which, 
being read aloud, proved to be of the following tenor : 

For the Mayor and Aldermen of Kirkwall — Gen- 
tlemen, As, contrary to your good faith given, you have 
not sent us on board a hostage for the safety of- our 


244 


THE PIRATE. 


Captain, remaining on shore at your request, these come 
to tell you, we are not thus to he trifled with. We 
have already in our possession, a brig, with a family of 
distinction, its owners and passengers ; and as you deal 
with our Captain, so will we deal with them in every 
respect. And as this is the first, so assure your- 
selves it shall not be the last damage which we will 
do to your town and trade, if you do not send on 
hoard our Captain, and supply us with stores according 
to treaty. 

Given on hoard the brig Mergoose of Burgh- 
Westra, lying in Inganess Bay. Witness our hands, 
commanders of the Fortune’s Favourite, and gentlemen 
adventurers.” 

He then subscribed himself Frederick Altamont, 
and handed the letter to Fletcher, who read the 
said subscription with much difficulty ; and, admir- 
ing the sound of it very much, swore he would have 
a new name himself, and the rather that Fletcher 
was the most crabbed word to spell and conster, he 
believed, in the whole dictionary. He subscribed 
himself accordingly, Timothy Tugmutton. 

“ Will you not add a few lines to the coxcombs ? ” 
said Bunce, addressing Magnus. 

“ Not I,” returned the Udaller, stubborn in his 
ideas of right and wrong, even in so formidable an 
emergency. The Magistrates of Kirkwall know 

their duty, and were I they ” But here the 

recollection that his daughters were at the mercy of 
these ruffians, blanked the bold visage of Magnus 
Troil, and checked the defiance which was just 
about to issue from his lips. 

“ D — n me,” said Bunce, who easily conjectured 
what was passing in the mind of his prisoner — 
“ that pause would have told well on the stage — it 


THE PIRATE. 


245 


would have brought down pit, box, and gallery, 
egad, as Bayes has it.” 

“ I will hear nothing of Bayes,” said Claud Hal- 
cro, (himself a little elevated,) “ it is an impudent 
satire on glorious John ; but he tickled Buckingham 
off for it — 

‘ In the first rank of these did Zimri stand; 

A man so various ’ ” 

“ Hold your peace ! ” said Bunce, drowning the 
voice of the admirer of Dryden in louder and more 
vehement asseveration, “ the Rehearsal is the best 
farce ever was written — and ITl make him kiss the 
gunner’s daughter that denies it. D — n me, I was 
the best Prince Prettyman ever walked the boards — 

‘Sometimes a fisher’s son, sometimes a prince.’ 

But let us to business. — Hark ye, old gentleman,” 
(to Magnus,) “ you have a sort of sulkiness about 
you, for which some of my profession would cut 
your ears out of your head, and broil them for your 
dinner with red pepper. I have known Goffe do 
so to a poor devil, for looking sour and dangerous 
when he saw his sloop go to Davy Jones’s locker 
with his only son on board. But I’m a spirit of 
another sort ; and if you or the ladies are ill used, 
it shall be the Kirkwall people’s fault, and not min^, 
and that’s fair ; and so you had better let them know 
your condition, and your circumstances, and so forth, 
— and that’s fair, too.” 

Magnus, thus exhorted, took up the pen, and 
attempted to write ; but his high spirit so struggled 
with his paternal anxiety, that his hand refused its 
office. “ I cannot help it,” he said,, after one or two 


246 


THE PIRATE. 


illegible attempts to write — “I cannot form a letter, 
if all our lives depended upon it.” 

And he could not, with his utmost efforts, so sup- 
press the convulsive emotions which he experienced, 
but that they agitated his whole frame. The willow 
which bends to the tempest, often escapes better 
than the oak which resists it ; and so, in great calam- 
ities, it sometimes happens, that light and frivolous 
spirits recover their elasticity gtnd presence of mind 
sooner than those of a loftier character. In the 
present case, Claud Halcro was fortunately able to 
perform the task which the deeper feelings of his 
friend and patron refused. He took the pen, and, in 
as few words as possible, explained the situation in 
which they were placed, and the cruel risks to which 
they were exposed, insinuating at the same time, as 
delicately as he could express it, that, to the magis- 
trates of the country, the life and honour of its 
citizens should be a dearer object than even tlie ap- 
prehension or punishment of the guilty ; taking care, 
however, to qualify the last expression as much as 
possible, for fear of giving umbrage to the pirates. 

Bunce read over the letter, which fortunately met 
his approbation ; and, on seeing the name of Claud 
Halcro at the bottom, he exclaimed, in great surprise, 
and with more energetic expressions of asseveration 
than we choose to record — “ Why, you are the little 
fellow that played the fiddle to old Manager Gad- 
about’s company, at Hogs Norton, the first season I 
came out there ! I thought I knew your catchword 
of glorious John.” 

At another time this recognition might not have 
been very grateful to Halcro’s minstrel pride ; but, 
as matters stood with him, the discovery of a golden 
mine could not have made him more happy. He 


THE PIRATE. 


247 


instantly remembered the very hopeful young per- 
former who came out in Don Sebastian, and judi- 
ciously added, that the muse of glorious John had 
never received such excellent support during the 
time that he was first (he might have added, and 
only) violin to Mr. Gadabout’s company. 

“ Why, yes,” said Bunce, “ I believe you are 
right — I think I might have shaken the scene as 
well as Booth or Betterton either. But I was des- 
tined to figure on other boards,” (striking his foot 
upon the deck,) “and I believe I must stick by 
them, till I find no board at all to support me. But 
now, old acquaintance, I will do something for you 
— slue yourself this way a bit — I would have you 
solus.” They leaned over the taffrail, while Bunce 
whispered with more seriousness than he usually 
showed, “ I am sorry for this honest old heart of 
Norway pine — blight me if I am not — and for the 
daughters too — besides, I have my own reasons for 
befriending one of them. I can be a wild fellow 
with a willing lass of the game ; but to such decent 
and innocent creatures — d — n me, I am Scipio at 
Numantia, and Alexander in the tent of Darius. 
You remember how I touch off Alexander ? ” (here 
he started into heroics.) 

“ * Thus from the grave I rise to save my love ; 

All draw your swords, with wings of lightning move. 

When I rush on, sure none will dare to stay — 

’Tis beauty calls, and glory shows the way.’” 

Claud Halcro failed not to bestow the necessary 
commendations on his declamation, declaring, that, 
in his opinion as an honest man, he had always 
thought Mr. Altamont’s givin'g that speech far su* 
perior in tone and energy to Betterton. 


248 


THE PIRATE 


Bunce, or Altamont, wrung his hand tenderly. 

Ah, you flatter me, my dear friend,” he said ; “ yet, 
why had not the public some of your judgment ! — 
I should not then have been at this pass. Heaven 
knows, my dear Mr. Halcro — Heaven knows with 
what pleasure I could keep you on board with me, 
just that I might have one friend who loves as much 
to hear, as I do to recite, the choicest pieces of our 
finest dramatic authors. The most of us are beasts 
— and, for the Kirkwall hostage yonder, he uses 
me, egad, as I use Fletcher, I think, and huffs me 
the more, the more I do for him. But how delight- 
ful it would be in a tropic night, when the ship was 
hanging on the breeze, with a broad and steady sail, 
for me to rehearse Alexander, with you for my pit, 
box, and gallery ! Nay, (for you are a follower of 
the muses, as I remember,) who knows but you and 
I might be the means of inspiring, like Orpheus and 
Eurydice, a pure taste into our companions, and sof- 
tening their manners, while we excited their better 
feelings ? ” 

This was spoken with so much unction, that Claud 
Halcro began to be afraid he had both made the 
actual punch over potent, and mixed too many be- 
witching ingredients in the cup of flattery which he 
had administered ; and that, under the influence of 
both potions, the sentimental pirate might detain 
him by force, merely to realize the scenes which his 
imagination presented. The conjuncture was, how- 
ever, too delicate to admit of any active effort, on 
Halcro’s part, to redeem his blunder, and therefore 
he only returned the tender pressure of his friend’s 
hand, and uttered the interjection “ alas ! ” in as 
pathetic a tone as he could. 

Bunce immediately resumed : “You are right, my 


THE PIRATE. . 


249 


friend, these are but vain visions of felicity, and it 
remains but for the unhappy Altamont to serve the 
friend to whom he is now to bid farewell. I have 
determined to put you and the two girls ashore, 
with Fletcher for your protection ; and so call 
up the young women, and let them begone be- 
fore the devil get aboard of me, or of some one 
else. You will carry my letter to the magistrates, 
and second it with your own eloquence, and as- 
sure them, that if they hurt but one hair of Cleve- 
land’s head, there will be the devil to pay, and no 
pitch hot.” 

Relieved at heart by this unexpected termination 
of Bunco’s harangue, Halcro descended the com- 
panion ladder two steps at a time, and knocking at 
the cabin door, could scarce find intelligible lan- 
guage enough to say his errand. The sisters hear- 
ing, with unexpected joy, that they were to be set 
ashore, muffled themselves in their cloaks, and, 
when they learned that the boat was hoisted out, 
came hastily on deck, where they were apprized, for 
the first time, to their great horror, that their father 
was still to remain on board of the pirate. 

“We will remain with him at every risk,” said 
Minna — “ we may be of some assistance to him, 
were it but for an instant — we will live and die 
with him ! ” 

“We shall aid him more surely,” said Brenda, 
who comprehended the nature of their situation 
better than Minna, “by interesting the people of 
Kirkwall to grant these gentlemen’s demands.” 

“ Spoken like an angel of sense and beauty,” said 
Buiice ; “ and now away with you ; for, d— n me, 
if this is not like having a lighted linstock in the 
powder-room — if you speak another word more, 


250 


THE PIRATE. 


confound me if I know how I shall bring myself 
to part with you ! ” 

“ Go, in God’s name, my daughters,” said Magnus. 
‘‘ I am in God’s hand ; and when you are gone I shall 
care little for myself — and I shall think and say, as 
long as I live, that this good gentleman deserves a 
better trade. — Go — go — away with you ! ” — for 
they yet lingered in reluctance to leave him. 

“ Stay not to kiss,” said Bunce, “ for fear I be 
tempted to ask my share. Into the boat with you 
— yet stop an instant.” He drew the three captives 
apart — “ Fletcher,” said he, “ will answer for the 
rest of the fellows, and will see you safe off the sea- 
beach. But how to answer for Fletcher, I know 
not, except by trusting Mr. Halcro with this little 
guarantee.” 

He offered the minstrel a small double-barrelled 
pistol, which, he said, was loaded with a brace of 
balls. Minna observed Halcro’s hand tremble as 
he stretched it out to take the weapon. “ Give it to 
me, sir,” she said, taking it from the outlaw ; “ and 
trust to me for defending my sister and myself.” 

“ Bravo, bravo ! ” shouted Bunce. “ There spoke a 
wench worthy of Cleveland, the King of Rovers ! ” 

“ Cleveland 1 ” repeated Minna, “ do you then know 
that Cleveland, whom you have twice named ? ” 

“Know him 1 Is there a man alive,” said Bunce, 
“ that knows better than I do the best and stoutest 
fellow ever stepped betwixt stem and stern ? When 
he is out of the bilboes, as please Heaven he shall 
soon he, I reckon to see you come on board of us, 
and reign the queen of every sea we sail over. — 
You have got the little guardian ; I suppose you 
know how to use it? If Fletcher behaves ill to you. 
you need only draw up this piece of iron with your 






THE PIRATE. 


251 


thumb, so — and if he persists, it is hut crooking 
your pretty forefinger thus, and I shall lose the 
most dutiful messmate that ever man had — though, 
d — n the dog, he will deserve his death if he dis- 
obeys my orders. And now, into the boat — hut 
stay, one kiss for Cleveland’s sake.” 

Brenda, in deadly terror, endured his courtesy, 
but Minna, stepping back with disdain, offered her 
hand. Bunce laughed, but kissed, with a theatrical 
air, the fair hand which she extended as a* ransom 
for her lips, and at length the sisters and Halcro 
were placed in the boat, which rowed off under 
Fletcher’s command. 

Bunce stood on the quarter-deck, soliloquizing 
after the manner, of his original profession. “ Were 
this told at Port-Royal now, or at the isle of Provi- 
dence, or in the Petits Guaves, I wonder what they 
would say of me ! Why, that I was a good-na- 
tured milksop — a Jack-a-lent — an ass. — Well, 
let them. I have done enough of had to think 
about it ; it is worth while doing one good action, 
if it were but for the rarity of the thing, and to 
put one in good humour with oneself.” Then turn- 
ing to Magnus Troil, he proceeded — “ By 

these are bona-rohas, these daughters of yours ! The 
eldest would make her fortune on the London 
boards. What a dashing attitude the wench had 
with her, as she seized the pistol ! — d — n me, that 
touch would have brought the house down ! What 
a Roxalana the jade would have made ! ” (for, in 
his oratory, Bunce, like Sancho’s gossip, Thomas 
Cecial, was apt to use the most energetic word 
which came to hand, without accurately consider- 
ing its propriety.) “ I would give my share of the 
next prize but to hear her spout — 


252 


THE PIRATE. 


‘ Away, begone, and give a whirlwind room, 

Or I will blow you up like dust. — Avaunt ! 

Madness but meanly represents my rage.^ 

And then, again, that little, soft, shy, tearful trem- 
bler, for Statira, to hear her recite — 

‘ He speaks the kindest words, and looks such things, 
Vows with such passion, swears with so much grace. 

That ’tis a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.* 

What a play we might have run up ! — I was a 
beast not to think of it before I sent them off — I 
to be Alexander — Claud Halcro, Lysimachus — 
this old gentleman might have made a Clytus, for 
a pinch. I was an idiot not to think of it ! ” 

There was much in this effusion’ which might 
have displeased the Udaller ; but, to speak truth, 
he paid no attention to it. His eye, and, finally, 
his spy-glass, were employed in watching the re- 
turn of his daughters to the shore. He saw them 
land on the beach, and, accompanied by Halcro, and 
another man, (Fletcher, doubtless,) he saw them 
ascend the acclivity, and proceed upon the road to 
Kirkwall ; and he could even distinguish that 
Minna, as if considering herself as the guardian 
of the party, walked a little aloof from the rest, 
on the watch, as it seemed, against surprise, and 
ready to act as occasion should require. At length, 
as the Udaller was just about to lose sight of them, 
he had the exquisite satisfaction to see the party 
lialt, and the pirate leave them, after a space just 
long enough for a civil farewell, and proceed slowly 
back, on his return to the beach. Blessing the 
Great Being who had thus relieved him from the 
most agonizing fears which a father can feel, 
the worthy Udaller, from that instant, stood re- 
signed to his own fate, whatever that might be. 


CHAPTER XVIL 


Over the mountains and under the waves, 

Over the fountains and under the graves, 

Over floods that are deepest, 

Which Neptune obey, 

Over rocks that are steepest. 

Love will find out the way. 

Old Song. 

The parting of Fletcher from Claud Halcro and the 
sisters of Burgh-Westra, on the spot where it took 
place, was partly occasioned by a small party of 
armed men being seen at a distance in the act of 
advancing from Kirkwall, an apparition hiddei^ 
from the Udaller’s spy-glass by the swell of the 
ground, but quite visible to the pirate, whom it 
determined to consult his own safety by a speedy 
return to his boat. He was just turning away, 
when Minna occasioned the short delay whicli her 
father had observed. 

“ Stop,” she said ; “ I command you ! — Tell your 
leader from me, that whatever the answer may 
be from Kirkwall, he shall carry his vessel, never- 
theless, round to Stromness ; and, being anchored 
there, let him send a boat ashore for Captain Cleve- 
land when he shall see a smoke on the Bridge of 
Broisgar.” 

Fletcher had thought, like his messmate Bunce 
of asking a kiss, at least, for the trouble of escort- 
ing these beautiful young women; and perhaps, 


254 


THE PIRATE. 


neither the terror of the approaching Kirkwall men, 
nor of Minna’s weapon, might have prevented his 
being insolent. But the name of his Captain, and, 
still more, the unappalled, dignified, and command- 
ing manner of Minna Troil, overawed him. He 
made a sea bow, — promised to keep a sharp look- 
out, and, returning to his boat, went on board with 
his message. 

As Halcro and the sisters advanced towards the 
party whom they saw on the Kirkwall road, and 
who, on their part, had halted as if to observe them, 
Brenda, relieved from the fears of Fletcher’s pres- 
ence, which had hitherto kept her silent, exclaimed, 
“ Merciful Heaven ! — Minna, in what hands have 
we left our dear father ? ” 

“ In the hands of brave men,” said Minna, stead- 
ily — “I fear not for him.” 

“ As brave as you please,” said Claud Halcro, 
“ but very dangerous rogues for all that. — I know 
that fellow Altamont, as he calls himself, though 
that is not his right name neither, as deboshed a 
dog as ever made a barn ring with blood and blank 
verse. He began with Barnwell, and every body 
thought he would end with the gallows, like the 
last scene in Venice Preserved.” 

“ It matters not,” said Minna — “ the wilder the 
waves, the more powerful is the voice that rules 
them. The name alone of Cleveland ruled the 
mood of the fiercest amongst them.” 

I am sorry for Cleveland,” said Brenda, if 
such are his companions, — but I care little for him 
in comparison to my father.” 

“Reserve your compassion for those who need 
it,” said Minna, “and fear nothing for our father. 
— God knows, every silver hair on his head is to 


THE PIRATE. 


255 


me worth the treasure of an unsummed mine; but 
I know that he is safe while in yonder vessel, and 
I know that he will be soon safe on shore.” 

“I would I could see it,” said Claud Halcro; 
“ but I fear the Kirkwall people, supposing Cleve- 
land to be such as I dread, will not dare to exchange 
him against the Udaller. The Scots have very 
severe laws against theft-boot, as they call it.”, 

“But who are those on the road before us?” 
said Brenda ; “ and why do they halt there so 
jealously ? ” 

“They are a patrol of the militia,” answered 
Halcro. “ Glorious John touches them off a little 
sharply, — but then John was a Jacobite, — (e) 

* Mouths without hands, maintain’d at vast expense, 

In peace a charge, in war a weak defence ; 

Stout once a-month, they march, a blustering band, 

And ever, but in time of need, at hand.’ 

I fancy they halted just now, taking us, as they 
saw us on the brow of the hill, for a party of the 
sloop’s men, and now they can distinguish that you 
wear petticoats, they are moving on again.” 

They came on accordingly, and proved to be, as 
Claud Halcro had suggested, a patrol sent out to 
watch the motions of the pirates, and to prevent 
their attempting descents to damage the country. 

They heartily congratulated Claud Halcro, who 
was well known to more than one of them, upon 
his escape from captivity ; and the commander of 
the party, while offering every assistance to the 
ladies, could not help condoling with them on the 
circumstances in which their father stood, hinting, 
though in a delicate and doubtful manner, the diffi- 
culties which might be in the way of his liberation. 


256 


THE PIRATE. 


When they arrived at Kirkwall, and obtained an 
audience of the Provost, and one or two of the 
Magistrates, these difficulties were more plainly 
insisted upon. — “ The Halcyon frigate is upon the 
coast,” said the Provost ; “ she was seen off Dun- 
cansbay-head ; and, though I have the deepest re- 
spect for Mr. Troil of Burgh-Westra, yet I shall 
be answerable to law if I release from prison the 
Captain of this suspicious vessel, on account of the 
safety of any individual who may be unRappily en- 
dangered by his detention. This man is now known 
to be the heart and soul of these buccaniers, and 
am I at liberty to send him aboard, that he may 
plunder the country, or perhaps go figlit the King’s 
ship ? — for he has impudence enough for any 
thing.” 

“ Courage enough for any thing, you mean, Mr. 
Provost,” said Minna, unable to restrain her 
displeasure. 

“ Why, you may call it as you please. Miss 
Troil,” said the worthy Magistrate; “but, in my 
opinion, that sort of courage which proposes to 
fight singly against two, is little better than a kind 
of practical impudence.” 

“ But our father ? ” said Brenda, in a tone of the 
most earnest entreaty — “ our father — the friend, 
I may say the father, of his country — to whom so 
many look for kindness, and so m*any for actual 
support — whose loss would be the extinction of a 
beacon in a storm — will you indeed weigh the risk 
which he runs, against such a trifling thing as let- 
ting an unfortunate man from prison, to seek his 
unhappy fate elsewhere ? ” 

“Miss Brenda is right,” said Claud Halcro; “I 
am for let-a-be for let-a-be, as the boys say; and 


THE PIRATE. 


257 


never fash about a warrant of liberation, Provost, 
but just take a fool’s counsel, and let the goodman 
of the jail forget to draw his bolt on the wicket, or 
leave a chink of a window open, or the like, and 
we shall be rid of the rover, and have the one best 
honest fellow in Orkney or Zetland on the lee-side 
of a bowl of punch with us in five hours.” 

The Provost replied in nearly the same terms 
as before, that he had the highest respect for Mr. 
Magnus Troil of Burgh- Westra, but that he could 
not suffer his consideration for any individual, how- 
ever respectable, to interfere with the discharge of 
his duty. 

Minna then addressed her sister in a tone of calm 
and sarcastic displeasure. — “ You forget,” she said^ 
Brenda, that you are talking of the safety of a 
poor insignificant Udaller of Zetland, to no less a 
person than the Chief Magistrate of the metropolis 
of Orkney — can you expect- so great a person to 
condescend to such a trifling subject of consider- 
ation ? It will be time enough for the Provost to 
think of complying with the terms sent to him — 
for comply with them at length he both must and 
will — when the Church of Saint Magnus is beat 
down about his ears.” 

“You may be angry with me, my pretty young 
lady,” said the good-humoured Provost Torfe, “ but 
I cannot be offended with you. The Church of Saint 
Magnus has stood many a day, and, I think, will 
outlive both you and me, much more yonder pack 
of unhanged dogs. And besides that your father is 
half an Orkneyman, and has both estate and friends 
among us, I would, I give you my word, do as much 
for a Zetlander in distress as I would for any one, 
excepting one of our own native Kirk wallers, who 

voii. II. — 17 


258 


THE PIRATE. 


are doubtless to be preferred. And if you will take 
up your lodgings here with my wife and myself, we 
will endeavour to show you,” continued he, “ that 
you are as welcome in Kirkwall, as ever you could 
be in Lerwick or Scalloway.” 

Minna deigned no reply to this good-humoured 
invitation, but Brenda declined it in civil terms, 
pleading the necessity of taking up their abode with 
a wealthy widow of Kirkwall, a relation, who 
already expected them. 

Halcro made another attempt to move the Pro- 
vost, but found him inexorable. — “ The Collector of 
the Customs had already threatened,” he said, “ to 
inform against him for entering into treaty, or, as he 
called it, packing and peeling with those strangers, 
even when it seemed the only means of preventing 
a bloody affray in the town ; and, should he now 
forego the advantage afforded by the imprison- 
ment of Cleveland and the escape of the Factor, he 
might incur something worse than censure.” The 
burden of the whole was, “ that he was sorry for the 
Udaller, he was sorry even for the lad Cleveland, 
who had some sparks of honour about him ; but his 
duty was imperious, and must be obeyed.” The 
Provost then precluded farther argument, by observ- 
ing, that another affair from Zetland called for 
his immediate attention. A gentleman named 
Mertoun, residing at Jarlshof, had made complaint 
against Snailsfoot the dagger, for having assisted 
a domestic of his in embezzling some valuable 
articles which had been deposited in his custody, 
and he was about to take examinations on the sub- 
ject, and cause them to be restored to Mr. Mertoun, 
who was accountable for them to the right owner. 

In all this information, there was nothing which 


THE PIRATE. 


259 


seemed interesting to the sisters excepting the word 
Mertoun, wliich went like a dagger to the heart 
of Minna, when she recollected the circumstances 
under which Mordaunt Mertoun had disappeared, 
and which, with an emotion less painful, though 
still of a melancholy nature, called a faint blush 
into Brenda’s cheek, and a slight degree of mois- 
ture into her eye. But it was soon evident that 
the Magistrate spoke not of Mordaunt, hut of his 
father ; and the daughters of Magnus, little inter- 
ested in his detail, took leave of the Provost to 
go to their own lodgings. 

When they arrived at their relation’s, Minna 
made it her business to learn, by such enquiries as 
she could make without exciting suspicion, what 
was the situation of the unfortunate Cleveland, 
which she soon discovered to be exceedingly pre- 
carious. The Provost had not,, indeed, committed 
him to close custody, as Claud Halcro had antici- 
pated, recollecting, perhaps, the favourable circum- 
stances under which he had surrendered himself, 
and loath, till the moment of the last necessity, 
altogether to break faith with him. But although 
left apparently at large, he was strictly watched by 
persons well armed and appmnted for the purpose, 
who had directions to detain him by force, if he 
attempted to pass certain narrow precincts which 
were allotted to him. He was quartered in a strong 
room within, what is called the King’s Castle, and 
at night his chamber door was locked on the out- 
side, and a sufficient guard mounted to prevent his 
escape. He therefore enjoyed only the degree of 
liberty which the cat, in her cruel sport, is some- 
times pleased to permit to the mouse which she 
has clutched ; and yet, such was the terror of the 


26 o 


THE PIRATE. 


resources, the courage, and ferocity of the pirate Cap- 
tain, that the Provost was blamed by the Collector, 
and many other sage citizens of Kirkwall, for per- 
mitting him to be at large upon any conditions. 

It may be well believed, that, under such circum- 
stances, Cleveland had no desire to seek any place 
of public resort, conscious that he was the object of 
a mixed feeling of curiosity and terror. His fa- 
vourite place of exercise, therefore, was the external 
aisles of the Cathedral of Saint Magnus, of which 
the eastern end alone is fitted up for public worship. 
This solemn old edifice, having escaped the ravage 
which attended the first convulsions of the Refor- 
mation, still retains some appearance of episcopal 
dignity. This place of worship is separated by a 
screen from the nave and western limb of the cross, 
and the whole is preserved in a state of cleanliness and 
decency, which might be well proposed as an example 
to the proud piles of Westminster and St. Paul’s. 

It was in this exterior part of the Cathedral that 
Cleveland was permitted to walk, the rather that 
his guards, by watching the single open entrance, 
had the means, with very little inconvenience to 
themselves, of preventing any possible attempt at 
escape. The place itself was well suited to his mel- 
ancholy circumstances. The lofty and vaulted roof 
rises upon ranges of Saxon pillars, of massive size, 
four of which, still larger than the rest, once sup- 
ported the lofty spire, which, long since destroyed 
by accident, has been rebuilt upon a disproportioned 
and truncated plan. The light is admitted at the 
eastern end through a lofty, well-proportioned, and 
richly-ornamented Gothic window; and the pave- 
ment is covered with inscriptions, in different lan- 
guages, distinguishing the graves of noble Orcadians, 


THE PIRATE. 261 

who have at different times been deposited within 
the sacred precincts. 

Here walked Cleveland, musing over the events 
of a misspent life, which, it seemed probable, might 
be brought to a violent and shameful close, while 
he was yet in the prime of youth. — “ With these 
dead,” he said, looking on the pavement, “ shall I 
soon be numbered — ^ but no holy man will speak a 
blessing; no friendly hand register an inscription ; 
no proud descendant sculpture armorial bearings 
over the grave of the pirate Cleveland. My whiten- 
ing bones will swing in the gibbet-irons, on some 
wild beach or lonely cape, that will be esteemed 
fatal and accursed for my sake. The old mariner, 
as he passes the Sound, will shake his head, and 
tell of my name and actions, as a warning to his 
younger comrades. — But, Minna ! Minna ! — what 
will be thy thoughts when the news reaches thee ? 
— Would to God the tidings were drowned in the 
deepest whirlpool betwixt Kirkwall and Burgh- 
Westra, ere they came to her ear ! — and 0 ! would 
to Heaven that we had never met, since we never 
can meet again ! ” 

He lifted up his eyes as he spoke, and Minna 
Troil stood before him. Her face was pale, and 
her hair dishevelled; but her look was composed 
and firm, with its usual expression of high-minded 
melancholy. She was still shrouded in the large 
mantle which she had assumed on leaving the ves- 
sel. Cleveland’s first emotion was astonishment ; 
his next was joy, not unmixed with awe. He would 
have exclaimed — he would have thrown himself at 
her feet — but she imposed at once silence and com- 
posure on him, by raising her finger, and saying, in 
a low but commanding accent, — “ Be cautious — we 


262 


THE PIRATE. 


are observed — there are men without — they let me 
enter with difficulty. I dare not remain long — they 
would think — they might believe — 0, Cleveland ! 
I have hazarded every thing to save you ! ” 

“ To save me ? — Alas ! poor Minna ! ” answered 
Cleveland, “ to save me is impossible. — Enough 
that I have seen you once more, were it but to say, 
for ever farewell ! ” 

“We must indeed say farewell,” said Minna; 
“ for fate, and your guilt, have divided us for ever. 
— Cleveland, I have seen your associates- — need I 
tell you more — need I say, that I know now what 
a pirate is ? ” 

“ You have been in the ruffians’ power ! ” said 
Cleveland, with a start of agony — “ Did they 
presume ” 

“ Cleveland,” replied Minna, “ they presumed 
nothing — your name was a spell over them. By 
the power of that spell over these ferocious banditti, 
and by that alone, I was reminded of the qualities I 
once thought my Cleveland’s ! ” 

“ Yes,” said Cleveland, proudly, “ my name has 
and shall have power over them, when they are at 
the wildest ; and, had they harmed you by one rude 
word, they should have found — Yet what do I rave 
about — I am a prisoner ! ” 

“ You shall be so no longer,” said Minna — “ Your 
safety — the safety of my dear father — all demand 
your instant freedom. I have formed a scheme for 
your liberty, which, boldly executed, cannot fail. 
The light is fading without — muffie yourself in my 
cloak, and you will easily pass the guards — I have 
given them the means of carousing, and they are 
deeply engaged. Haste to the Loch of Stennis, and 
hide yourself till day dawns ; then make a smoke 


THE PIRATE. 


263 


on the point, where the land, stretching into the 
lake on each side, divides it nearly in two at the 
Bridge of Broisgar. Your vessel, which lies not 
far distant, will send a boat ashore. — Do not hesi- 
tate an instant ! ” 

“ But you, Minna ! — Should this wild scheme suc- 
ceed,” said Cleveland, “ what is to become of you ? ” 

“For my share in your escape,” answered the 
maiden, “ the honesty of my own intention will vin- 
dicate me in the sight of Heaven ; and the safety of 
my father, whose fate depends on yours, will be my 
excuse to man.” 

In a few words, she gave him the history of their 
capture, and its consequences. Cleveland cast up 
his eyes and raised his hands to Heaven, in thank- 
fulness for the escape of the sisters from his evil 
companions, and then hastily added, — “ But you 
are right, Minna ; I must fly at all rates — for your 
father’s sake I must fly. — Here, then, we part — 
yet not, I trust, for ever.” 

“ For ever ! ” answered a voice, that sounded as 
from a sepulchral vault. 

They started, looked around them, and then 
gazed on each other. It seemed as if the echoes of 
the building had returned Cleveland’s last words, but 
the pronunciation was too emphatically accented. 

“Yes, for ever!” said Norna of the Fitful-head, 
stepping forward from behind one of the massive 
Saxon pillars which support the roof of the Cathe- 
dral. “ Here meet the crimson foot and the crim- 
son hand. Well for both that the wound is healed 
whence that crimson was derived — well for both, 
but best for him who shed it. — Here, then, you 
meet — and meet for the last time ! ” 

“Not so,” said Cleveland, as if about to take 


264 


THE PIRATE. 


Minna’s hand ; “ to separate me from Minna, while 
I have life, must be the work of herself alone.” 

“ Away ! ” said Norna, stepping betwixt them, 

— “ away with such idle folly ! — Nourish no vain 
dreams of future meetings — you part here, and you 
part for ever. The hawk pairs not with the dove ; 
guilt matches not with innocence. — Minna Troil, 
you look for the last time on this bold and crimi- 
nal man — Cleveland, you behold Minna for the 
last time ! ” 

“And dream you,” said Cleveland, indignantly, 
“ that your mummery imposes on me, and that I 
am among the fools who see more than trick in your 
pretended art ? ” 

“Forbear, Cleveland, forbear!” said Minna, her 
hereditary awe of Norna augmented by the circum- 
stance of her sudden appearance. “ 0, forbear ! — 
she is powerful — she is but too powerful. — And 
do you, 0 Norna, remember my father’s safety is 
linked with Cleveland’s.” 

“ And it is well for Cleveland that I do remem- 
ber it,” replied the Pythoness — “ and that, for the 
sake of one, I am here to aid both. You, with your 
childish purpose, of passing one of his bulk and 
stature under the disguise of a few paltry folds of 
wadmaal — what would your device have procured 
him but instant restraint with bolt and shackle ? 

— I will save him — I will place him in security on 
board his bark. But let him renounce these shores 
for ever, and carry elsewhere the terrors of his sable 
flag, and his yet blacker name ; for if the sun rises 
twice, and finds him still at anchor, his blood be on 
his own head. — Ay, look to each other — look the 
last look that I permit to frail affection, — and say, 
if ye can say it, Farewell for ever ! ” 


THE PIRATE. 265 

“ Obey her,” stammered Minna ; “ remonstrate not, 
but obey her.” 

Cleveland, grasping her hand, and kissing it ar- 
dently, said, but so low that she only could hear it, 
“ Farewell, Minna, but not for ever.” 

“And now, maiden, begone,” said Norna, “and 
leave the rest to the Reimkennar.” 

“ One word more,” said Minna, “ and I obey you. 
Tell me but if I have caught aright your meaning 
— Is Mordaunt Mertoun safe and recovered ?” 

“ Recovered, and safe,” said Norna ; “ else woe to 
the hand that shed his blood ! ” 

Minna slowly sought the door of the Cathedral, 
and turned back from time to time to look at the 
shadowy form of Norna, and the stately and military 
figure of Cleveland, as they stood together in the 
deepening gloom of the ancient Cathedral. When 
she looked back a second time they were in mo- 
tion, and Cleveland followed the matron, as, with 
a slow and solemn step, she glided towards one of 
the side aisles. When Minna looked back a third 
time, their figures were no longer visible. She 
collected herself, and walked on to the eastern 
door by which she had entered, and listened for 
an instant to the guard, who talked together on 
the outside. 

“The Zetland girl stays a long time with this 
pirate fellow,” said one. “ I wish they have not 
more to speak about than the ransom of her father.” 

“ Ay, truly,” answered another, “ the wenches 
will have more sympathy with a handsome young 
pirate, than an old bed-ridden burgher.” 

Their discourse was here interrupted by her of 
whom they were speaking; and, as if taken in 
the manner, they pulled off their hats, made theiy 


266 


THi: PIRATE. 


awkward obeisances, and looked not a little embaf' 
rassed and confused. 

Minna returned to the house where she lodged, 
much affected, yet, on the whole, pleased with the 
result of her expedition, which seemed to put her 
father out of danger, and assured her at once of the 
escape of Cleveland, and of the safety of young Mor- 
daunt. She hastened to communicate both pieces of 
intelligence to Brenda, who joined her in thankful- 
ness to Heaven, and was herself wellnigh persuaded 
to believe in Norna’s supernatural pretensions, so 
much was she pleased with the manner in which 
they had been employed. Some time was spent in 
exchanging their mutual congratulations, and min- 
gling tears of hope, mixed with apprehension ; 
when, at a late hour in the evening, they were inter- 
rupted by Claud Halcro, who, full of a fidgeting 
sort of importai^ce, not unmingled with fear, came 
to acquaint them, that the prisoner, Cleveland, had 
disappeared from the Cathedral, in which he had 
been permitted to walk, and that the Provost, hav- 
ing been informed that Minna was accessary to his 
flight, was coming, in a mighty quandary, to make 
enquiry into the circumstances. 

When the worthy Magistrate arrived, Minna did 
not conceal from him her own wish that Cleveland 
should make his escape, as the only means which 
she saw of redeeming her father from imminent 
danger. But that she had any actual accession to 
his flight, she positively denied ; and stated, “ that 
she had parted from Cleveland in the Cathedral, 
more than two hours since, and then left him in 
company with a third person, whose name she did 
not conceive herself obliged to communicate.” 

“It is not needful, Miss Minna Troil,” answered 


THE PIRATE. 


267 


Provost Torfe ; “ for, although no person hut this 
Captain Cleveland and yourself was seen to enter the 
Kirk of St. Magnus this day, we know well enough 
that your cousin, old Ulla Troil, whom you Zet- 
landers call Korna of Fitful-head, has been cruising 
up and down, upon sea and land, and air, for what 
I know, in boats and on ponies, and it may be on 
broomsticks; and here has been her dumb Drow, 
too, coming and going, and playing the spy on every 
one — and a good spy he is, for he can hear every 
thing, and tells nothing again, unless to his mistress. 
And we know, besides, that she can enter the Kirk 
when all the doors are fast, and has been seen there 
more than once, God save us from the Evil One ! 
— and so, without farther questions asked, I con- 
clude it was old Norna whom you left in the Kirk 
with this slashing blade — and, if so, they may catch 
them again that can. — I cannot but say, however, 
pretty Mistress Minna, that you Zetland folks seem 
to forget both law and gospel, when you use the 
help of witchcraft to fetch delinquents out of a legal 
prison; and the least that you, or your cousin, or 
your father, can do, is to use influence with this 
wild fellow to go away as soon as possible, without 
hurting the town or trade, and then there will be 
little harm in what has chanced ; for. Heaven knows, 
I did not seek the poor lad’s life, so I could get 
my hands free of him without blame ; and far less 
did I wish, that, through his imprisonment, any 
harm should come to worthy Magnus Troil of 
Burgh- Westra.” 

“ I see where the shoe pinches you, Mr. Provost,” 
said Claud Halcro, “ and I am sure I can answer 
for my friend Mr. Troil, as well as for myself, that 
we will say and do all in our power with this man, 


268 


THE PIRATE. 


Captain Cleveland, to make him leave the coast 
directly.” 

“ And I,” said Minna, “ am so convinced that what 
you recommend is best for all parties, that my sis- 
ter and I will set off early to-morrow morning to 
the House of Stennis, if Mr. Halcro will give us 
his escort, to receive my father when he comes 
ashore, that we may acquaint him with your wish, 
and to use every influence to induce this unhappy 
man to leave the country.” 

Provost Torfe looked upon her with some sur- 
prise. “It is not every young woman,” he said, 
“ would wish to move eight miles nearer to a band 
of pirates.” 

“ We run no risk,” said Claud Halcro, interfering. 
“ The House of Stennis is strong ; and my cousin, 
whom it belongs to, has men and arms within it. 
The young ladies are as safe there as in Kirkwall; 
and much good may arise from an early commu- 
nication between Magnus Troil and his daughters. 
And happy am I to see, that in your case, my good 
old friend, — as glorious John says, — 

‘ After much debate, 

The man prevails above the magistrate.* ** 

The Provost smiled, nodded his head, and indi- 
cated, as far as he thought he could do so with 
decency, how happy he should be if the Fortune’s 
Favourite, and her disorderly crew, would leave 
Orkney without further interference, or violence 
on either side. He could not authorize their being 
supplied from the shore, he said; but, either for 
fear or favour, they were certain to get provisions 
at Strom ness. This pacific magistrate then took 


THE PIRATE. 


269 


leave of Halcro and the two ladies, who proposed 
the next morning, to transfer their residence to the 
House of Stennis, situated upon the banks of the 
salt-water lake of the same name, and about four 
miles by water from the Road of Stromness, where 
the Rover’s vessel was lying. 


CHAPTEE XVIII. 


Fly, Fleance, fly ! — Thou mayst escape. 

Macbeth. 


It was one branch of the various arts by which 
Xorna endeavoured to maintain her pretensions to 
supernatural powers, that she made herself famil- 
iarly and practically acquainted with all the secret 
passes and recesses, whether natural or artificial, 
which she could hear of, whether by tradition or 
otherwise, and was, by such knowledge, often en- 
abled to perform feats which were otherwise un- 
accountable. Thus, when she escaped from the 
tabernacle at Burgh- Wes tra, it was by a sliding 
board which covered a secret passage in the wall, 
known to none but herself and Magnus, who, she 
was well assured, would not betray her. The pro- 
fusion, also, with which she lavished a considerable 
income, otherwise of no use to her, enabled her to 
procure the earliest intelligence respecting whatever 
she desired to know, and, at the same time, to secure 
all other assistance necessary to carry her plans into 
effect. Cleveland, upon the present occasion, had 
reason to admire both her sagacity and her resources. 

Upon her applying a little forcible pressure, a 
door which was concealed under some rich wooden 
sculpture in the screen which divides the eastern 
aisle from the rest of the Cathedral, opened, and 


THE PIRATE. 


271 


disclosed a dark narrow winding passage, into which 
she entered, telling Cleveland, in a whisper, to fol- 
low, and be sure he shut the door behind him. He 
obeyed, and followed her in darkness and silence, 
sometimes descending steps, of the number of which 
she always apprized him, sometimes ascending, and 
often turning at short angles. The air was more 
free than he could have expected, the passage being 
ventilated at different parts by unseen and ingen- 
iously contrived spiracles, which communicated with 
the open air. At length their long course ended, 
by Norna drawing aside a sliding panel, which, 
opening behind a wooden, or box-bed, as it is called 
in Scotland, admitted them into an ancient, but very 
mean apartment, having a latticed window, and a 
groined roof. The furniture was much dilapidated; 
and its only ornaments were, on the one side of the 
wall, a garland of faded ribbons, such as are used 
to decorate whale-vessels; and, on the other, an 
escutcheon, bearing an Earl’s arms and coronet, sur- 
rounded with the usual emblems of mortality. The 
mattock and spade, which lay in one corner, together 
with the appearance of an old man, who, in a rusty 
black coat, and slouched hat, sat reading by a table, 
announced that they were in the habitation of the 
church-beadle, or sexton, and in the presence of 
that respectable functionary. 

When his attention was attracted by the noise 
of the sliding panel, he arose, and, testifying much 
respect, but no surprise, took his shadowy hat from 
his thin grey locks, and stood uncovered in the pres- 
ence of Norna with an air of profound humility. 

“Be faithful,” said Norna to the old man, “and 
beware you show not any living mortal the secret 
path to the Sanctuary.” 


272 


THE PIRATE. 


The old man bowed, in token of obedience and 
of thanks, for she put money in his hand as she 
spoke. With a faltering voice, he expressed his 
hope that she would remember his son, who was on 
the Greenland voyage, that he might return fortu- 
nate and safe, as he had done last year, when he 
brought back the garland, pointing to that upon 
the wall. 

“ My cauldron shall boil, and my rhyme shall be 
said, in his behalf,” answered Norna. “ Waits Pa- 
colet without with the horses ? ” 

The old Sexton assented, and the Pythoness, 
commanding Cleveland to follow her, went through 
a back door of the apartment into a small garden, 
corresponding, in its desolate appearance, to the 
habitation they had just quitted. The low and 
broken wall easily permitted them to pass into 
another and larger garden, though not much better 
kept, and a gate, which was upon the latch, let them 
into a long and winding lane, through which, Norna 
having whispered to her companion that it was the 
only dangerous place on their road, they walked 
with a hasty pace. It was now nearly dark, and 
the inhabitants of the poor dwellings, on either hand, 
had betaken themselves to their houses. They saw 
only one woman, who was looking from her door, 
but blessed herself, and retired into her house with 
precipitation, when she saw the tall figure of Norna 
stalk past her with long strides. The lane conducted 
them into the country, where the dumb dwarf waited 
with three horses, ensconced behind the wall of a 
deserted shed. On one of these Norna instantly 
seated herself, Cleveland mounted another, and, fol- 
lowed by Pacolet on the third, they moved sharply 
on through the darkness ; the active and spirited 


THE PIRATE. 


273 


animals on which they rode being of a breed rather 
taller than those reared in Zetland. 

After more than an hour’s smart riding, in which 
Norna acted as guide, they stopped before a hovel, 
so utterly desolate in appearance, that it resembled 
rather a cattle-shed than a cottage. 

“Here you must remain till dawn, when your 
signal can be seen from your vessel,” said Norna, 
consigning the horses to the care of Pacolet, and 
leading the way into the wretched hovel, which she 
presently illuminated by lighting the small iron lamp 
which she usually carried along with her. “ It is 
a poor,” she said, “ but a safe place of refuge ; for 
were we pursued hither, the earth would yawn and 
admit us into its recesses ere you were taken. For 
know, that this ground is sacred to the Gods of old 
Valhalla. — And now say, man of mischief and of 
blood, are you friend or foe to Norna, the sole 
priestess of these disowned deities ? ” 

“How is it possible for me to be your enemy?” 
said Cleveland. — “Common gratitude” 

“ Common gratitude,” said Norna, interrupting him, 
“ is a common word — and words are the common 
pay which fools accept at the hands of knaves ; but 
Norna must be requited by actions — by sacrifices.” 

“ Well, mother, name your request.” 

“ That you never seek to see Minna Troil again, 
and that you leave this coast in twenty-four hours,” 
answered Norna. 

“ It is impossible,” said the outlaw ; “ I cannot be 
soon enough found in the sea-stores which the sloop 
must have.” 

“ You can. I will take care you are fully sup- 
plied; and Caithness and the Hebrides are not fal 
distant — you can depart if you will.” 

VOL. II. — 18 


THE PIRATE. 


m 


“ And why should I,” said Cleveland, “ if I will 
not ? ” 

“ Because your stay endangers others,” said Norna, 
“and will prove your own destruction. Hear me 
with attention. From the first moment I saw you 
lying senseless on the sand beneath the cliffs of 
Sumburgh, I read that in your countenance which 
linked you with me, and those who were dear to 
me ; but whether for good or evil, was hidden from 
mine eyes. I aided in saving your life, in preserving 
your property. I aided in doing so, the very youth 
whom you have crossed in his dearest affections — 
crossed by tale-bearing and slander.” 

“ /slander Mertoun ! ” exclaimed Cleveland. “ By 
heaven, I scarce mentioned his name at Burgh- 
Westra, if it is that which you mean. The peddling 
fellow Bryce, meaning, I believe, to be my friend, 
because he found something could be made by me, 
did, I have since heard, carry tattle, or truth, I 
know not which, to the old man, which was con- 
firmed by the report of the whole island. But, for 
me, I scarce thought of him as a rival ; else, 1 had 
taken a more honourable way to rid myself of him.” 

“ Was the point of your double-edged knife, di- 
rected to the bosom of an unarmed man, intended 
to carve out that more honourable way ? ” said 
Norna, sternly. 

Cleveland was conscience-struck, and remained 
silent for an instant, ere he replied, “ There, indeed, 
I was wrong ; but he is, I thank Heaven, recovered, 
and welcome to an honourable satisfaction.” 

“ Cleveland,” said the Pythoness, “ No ! The fiend 
who employs you as his implement is powerful; 
but with me he shall not strive. You are of that 
temperament which the dark Influences desire as 


THE PIRATE. 


275 


the tools of their agency; hold, haughty, and un- 
daunted, unrestrained by principle, and having only 
in its room a wild sense of indomitable pride, which 
such men call honour. Such you are, and as such 
your course through life has been — onward and 
unrestrained, bloody and tempestuous. By me, how- 
ever, it shall he controlled,” she concluded, stretch- 
ing out her staff, as if in the attitude of determined 
authority — “ ay, even although the demon who pre- 
sides over it should now arise in his terrors.'’ 

Cleveland laughed scornfully. “ Good mother,” 
he said, “ reserve such language for the rude sailor 
that implores you to bestow him fair wind, or the 
poor fisherman that asks success to his nets and 
lines. I have been long inaccessible both to fear 
and to superstition. Call forth your demon, if you 
command one, and place him before me. The man 
that has spent years in company with incarnate 
devils, can scarce dread the presence of a disem- 
bodied fiend.” 

This was said with a careless and desperate bitter- 
ness of spirit, which proved too powerfully energetic 
even for the delusions of Norna’s insanity ; and it 
was with a hollow and tremulous voice that she 
asked Cleveland — ‘‘For what, then, do you hold me, 
if you deny the power I have bought so dearly ? ” 

“ You have wisdom, mother,” said Cleveland ; “ at 
least you have art, and art is power. I hold you for 
one who knows how to steer upon the current of 
events, but I deny your power to change its course. 
Do not, therefore, waste words in quoting terrors 
for which I have no feeling, but tell me at once, 
wherefore you would have me depart?” 

“ Because I will have you see Minna no more,’' 
answered Norna — “Because Minna is the destined 


276 


THE PIRATE. 


bride of him whom men call Mordaunt Mertoun 
Because if you depart not within twenty-four hours, 
utter destruction awaits you. In these plain words 
there is no metaphysical delusion — Answer me as 
plainly.” 

“ In as plain words, then,” answered Cleveland, 
“ I will not leave these islands — not, at least, till 
I have seen Minna Troil; and never shall your 
Mordaunt possess her while I live.” 

“ Hear him ! ” said Norna — “ hear a mortal man 
spurn at the means of prolonging his life ! — hear a 
sinful — a most sinful being, refuse the time which 
fate yet affords for repentance, and for the salvation 
of an immortal soul ! — Behold him how he stands 
erect, bold and confident in his youthful strength 
and courage ! My eyes, unused to tears — even my 
eyes, which have so little cause to weep for him, 
are blinded with sorrow, to think what so fair a 
form will be ere the second sun set ! ” 

“ Mother,” said Cleveland, firmly, yet with some 
touch of sorrow in his voice, “ I in part understand 
your threats. You know more than we do of the 
course of the Halcyon — perhaps have the means 
(for I acknowledge you have shown wonderful skill 
of combination in such affairs) of directing her cruise 
our way. Be it so, — I will not depart from my 
purpose for that risk. If the frigate comes hither, 
we have still our shoal water to trust to ; and I 
think they will scarce cut us out with boats, as if 
we were a Spanish xebeck. I am therefore resolved 
I will hoist once more the flag under which I have 
cruised, avail ourselves of the thousand chances 
which have helped us in greater odds, and, at the 
worst, fight the vessel to the very last ; and, when 
mortal man can do no more, it is but snapping a 


THE PIRATE. 


277 


pistol in the powder-room, and, as we have lived, so 
will we die.” 

There was a dead pause as Cleveland ended ; and 
it was broken by his resuming, in a softer tone — 
“ You have heard my answer, mother ; let us debate 
it no further, but part in* peace. I would willingly 
leave you a remembrance, that you may not forget 
a poor fellow to whom your services have been useful, 
and who parts with you in no unkindness, however 
unfriendly you are to his dearest interests. — Nay, 
do not shun to accept such a trifle,” he said, forcing 
upon Norna the little silver enchased box which 
had been once the subject of strife betwixt Mertoun 
and him ; “ it is not for the sake of the metal, 
which I know you value not, but simply as a 
memorial that you have met him of whom many 
a strange tale will hereafter be told in the seas 
which he has traversed.” 

“ I accept your gift,” said Norna, “in token that, 
if I have in aught been accessary to your fate, it 
was as the involuntary and grieving agent of other 
powers. Well did you say we direct not the cur- 
rent of the events which hurry us forward, and 
render our utmost efforts unavailing ; even as the 
wells of Tuftiloe^ can wheel the stoutest vessel 
round and round, in despite of either sail or steer- 
age. — Pacolet ! ” she exclaimed, in a louder voice, 
“ what, ho ! Pacolet ! ” 

A large stone, which lay at the side of the wall 

1 A well, in the language of those seas, denotes one of the 
whirlpools, or circular eddies, Avhich wheel and boil with astonish- 
ing strength, and are very dangerous. Hence the distinction, 
in old English, betwixt wells and waves ^ the latter signifying 
the direct onward course of the tide, and the former the smooth, 
glassy, oily-looking whirlpools, whose strength seems to the eye 
almost irresistible. 


278 


THE PIRATE. 


of the hovel, fell as she spoke, and to Cleveland’s 
surprise, if not somewhat to his fear, the misshapen 
form of the dwarf was seen, like some overgrown 
reptile, extricating himself out of a subterranean 
passage, the entrance to which the stone had 
covered. 

Norn a, as if impressed by what Cleveland had 
said on the subject of her supernatural pretensions, 
was so far from endeavouring to avail herself of 
this opportunity to enforce them, that she hastened 
to explain the phenomenon he had witnessed. 

“ Such passages,” she said, “ to which the en- 
trances are carefully concealed, are frequently found 
in these islands — the places of retreat of the ancient 
inhabitants, where they sought refuge from the rage 
of the Normans, the pirates of that day. It was 
that you might avail yourself of this, in case of need, 
that I brought you hither. Should you observe 
signs of pursuit, you may either lurk in the bowels 
of the earth until it has passed by, or escape, if you 
will, through the farther entrance near the lake, 
by which Pacolet entered but now. — And now 
farewell ! Think on what I have said ; for as 
sure as you now move and breathe a living man, 
so surely is your doom fixed and sealed, unless, 
within four-and-twenty hours, you have doubled 
the Burgh-head.” 

“ Farewell, mother ! ” said Cleveland, as she de- 
parted, bending a look upon him, in which, as he 
could perceive by the lamp, sorrow was mingled 
with displeasure. 

The interview, which thus concluded, left a strong 
effect even upon the mind of Cleveland, accustomed 
as he was to imminent dangers and to hair-breadth 
escapes. He in vain attempted to shake off the 


THE PIRATE. 


279 


impression left by the words of Norna, which he felt 
the more powerful, because they were in a great 
measure divested of her wonted mystical tone, which 
he contemned. A thousand times he regretted that 
he had from time to time delayed the resolution, 
which he had long adopted, to quit his dreadful and 
dangerous trade ; and as often he firmly determined, 
that, could he but see Minna Troil once more, 
were it but for a last farewell, he would leave the 
sloop, as soon as his comrades were extricated from 
their perilous situation, endeavour to obtain the 
benefit of the King’s pardon, and distinguish him- 
self, if possible, in some more honourable course 
of warfare. 

This resolution, to which he again and again 
pledged himself, had at length a sedative effect on 
his mental perturbation, and, wrapt in his cloak, he 
enjoyed, for a time, that imperfect repose which ex- 
hausted nature demands as her tribute, even from 
those who are situated on the verge of the most 
imminent danger. But how far soever the guilty 
may satisfy his own mind, and stupify the feelings 
of remorse, by such a conditional repentance, we 
may well question whether it is not, in the sight of 
Heaven, rather a presumptuous aggravation, than 
an expiation of his sins. 

When Cleveland awoke, the grey dawn was al- 
ready mingling with the twilight of an Orcadian 
night. He found himself on the verge of a beautiful 
sheet of water, which, close by the place where he 
had rested, was nearly divided by two tongues of 
land that approach each other from the opposing 
sides of the lake, and are in some degree united by 
the Bridge of Broisgar, a long causeway, contain- 
ing openings to permit the flow and reflux of the 


28 o 


THE PIRATE. 


tide. Behind him, and fronting to the bridge, stood 
that remarkable semicircle of huge upright stones, 
which has no rival in Britain, excepting the inimi- 
table monument at Stonehenge. These immense 
blocks of stone, all of them above twelve feet, and 
several being even fourteen or fifteen feet in height, 
stood around the pirate in the grey light of the dawn- 
ing, like the phantom forms of antediluvian giants, 
who, shrouded in the habiliments of the dead, came 
to revisit, by this pale light, the earth which they 
had plagued by their oppression and polluted by 
their sins, till they brought down upon it the ven- 
geance of long-suffering Heaven. ^ 

Cleveland was less interested by this singular 
monument of antiquity than by the distant view of 
Stromness, which he could as yet scarce discover. 
He lost no time in striking a light, by the assist- 
ance of one of his pistols, and some wet fern supplied 
him with fuel sufficient to make the appointed sig- 
nal. It had been earnestly watched for on board the 
sloop ; for Goffe’s incapacity became daily more ap- 
parent ; and even his most steady adherents agreed 
it would be best to submit to Cleveland’s command 
till they got back to the West Indies. 

Bunce, who came with the boat to bring off his 
favourite commander, danced, cursed, shouted, and 
spouted for joy, when he saw him once more at 
freedom. “ They had already,” he said, “ made 
some progress in victualling the sloop, and they 
might have made more, but for that drunken old 
swab Goffe, who minded nothing but splicing the 
main-brace.” 

The boat’s crew were inspired with the same en- 
thusiasm, and rowed so hard, that, although the 
1 Rote VII. — The Standing Stones of Stennis. 


THE PIRATE. 


281 

tide was against them, and the air or wind failed, 
they soon placed Cleveland once more on the quar- 
ter-deck of the vessel which it was his misfortune 
to command. 

The first exercise of the Captain’s power was to 
make known to Magnus Troil that he was at full 
freedom to depart — that he was willing to make 
him any compensation in his power, for the inter- 
ruption of his voyage to Kirkwall ; and that Cap- 
tain Cleveland was desirous, if agreeable to Mr. 
Troil, to pay his respects to him on board his brig 
— thank him for former favours, and apologize for 
the circumstances attending his detention. 

To Bunce, who, as the most civilized of the crew, 
Cleveland had intrusted this message, the old plain- 
dealing Udaller made the following answer : “ Tell 
your Captain that I should be glad to think he had 
never stopped any one upon the high sea, save such 
as have suffered as little as I have. Say, too, that 
if we are to continue friends, we shall be most so 
at a distance ; for I Like the sound of his cannon- 
balls as little by sea, as he would like the whistle 
of a bullet by land from my rifle-gun. Say, in a 
word, that I am sorry I was mistaken in him, and 
that he would have done better to have reserved 
for the Spaniard the usage he is bestowing on his 
countrymen.” 

“And so that is your message, old Snapcholer- 
ick ? ” said Bunce — “ Now, stap my vitals if I have 
not a mind to do your errand for you over the left 
shoulder, and teach you more respect for gentlemen 
of fortune ! But I won’t, and chiefly for the sake 
of your two pretty wenches, not to mention my 
old friend Claud Halcro, the very visage of whom 
brought back all the old days of scene-shifting and 


282 


THE PIRATE. 


candle-snuffing. So good morrow to you, Gaffer 
Seal’s-cap, and all is said that need pass between 
us.” 

No sooner did the boat put off with the pirates, 
who left the brig, and now returned to their own 
vessel, than Magnus, in order to avoid reposing 
unnecessary confidence in the honour of these gen- 
tlemen of fortune, as they called themselves, got his 
brig under way ; and, the wind coming favourably 
round, and increasing as the sun rose, he crowded 
all sail for Scalpa-flow, intending there to disem- 
bark and go by land to Kirkwall, where he expected 
to meet his daughters and his friend Claud Halcro. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


Now, Emma, now the last reflection make, 

What thou wouldst follow, what thou must forsake 
By our ill-omen’d stars and adverse Heaven, 

No middle object to thy choice is given. 

Henry and Emma, 

The sun was high in heaven ; the boats were bus- 
ily fetching off from the shore the promised supply 
of provisions and water, which, as many fishing 
skiffs were employed in the service, were got on 
board with unexpected speed, and stowed away by 
the crew of the sloop, with equal dispatch. All 
worked with good will ; for all, save Cleveland him- 
self, were weary of a coast, where every moment 
increased their danger, and where, which they es- 
teemed a worse misfortune, there was no booty to 
be won. Bunce and Derrick took the immediate 
direction of this duty, while Cleveland, walking 
the deck alone, and in silence, only interfered from 
time to time, to give some order which circum- 
stances required, and then relapsed into his own 
sad reflections. 

There are two sorts of men whom situations of 
guilt, terror, and commotion, bring forward as pro- 
minent agents. The first are spirits so naturally 
moulded and fitted for deeds of horror, that they 
stalk forth from their lurking-places like actual 
demons, to work in their native element, as the 
hideous apparition of the Bearded Man came forth 


284 


THE PIRATE. 


at Versailles, on the memorable 5th October, 1789, 
the delighted executioner of the victims delivered 
up to him by a bloodthirsty rabble. But Cleveland 
belonged to the second class of these unfortunate 
beings, who are involved in evil rather by the con- 
currence of external circumstances than by natural 
inclination, being, indeed, one in whom his first 
engaging in this lawless mode of life, as the follower 
of his father, nay, perhaps, even his pursuing it as 
his father’s avenger, carried with it something of 
mitigation and apology ; — one also who often con- 
sidered his guilty situation with horror, and had 
made repeated, though ineffectual efforts, to escape 
from it. 

Such thoughts of remorse were now rolling in his 
mind, and he may be forgiven, if recollections of 
Minna mingled with and aided them. He looked 
around, too, on his mates, and, profligate and hard- 
ened as he knew them to be, he could not think of 
their paying the penalty of his obstinacy. “We 
shall be ready to sail with the ebb tide,” he said to 
himself — “ why should I endanger these men, by 
detaining them till the hour of danger, predicted by 
that singular woman, shall arrive ? Her intelligence, 
howsoever acquired, has been always strangely ac- 
curate ; and her warning was as solemn as if a 
mother were to apprize an erring son of his crimes, 
and of his approaching punishment. Besides, what 
3hance is there that I can again see Minna ? She 
is at Kirkwall, doubtless, and to hold my course 
thither would be to steer right upon the rocks. No, 
I will not endanger these poor fellows — I will sail 
with the ebb tide. On the desolate Hebrides, or 
on the north-west coast of Ireland, I will leave the 
vessel, and return hither in some disguise — yet 


THE PIRATE. 


285 


why should I return, since it will perhaps be only 
to see Minna the bride of Mordaunt ? No — let 
the vessel sail with this ebb tide without me. I 
will abide and take my fate.” 

His meditations were here interrupted by Jack 
Bunce, who, hailing him noble Captain, said they 
were ready to sail when he pleased. 

“ When you please, Bunce ; for I shall leave the 
command with you, and go ashore at Stromness,” 
said Cleveland. 

“ You shall do no such matter, by Heaven ! ” an- 
swered Bunce. “ The command with me, truly ! 
and how the devil am I to get the crew to obey 
me ? Why, even Dick Fletcher rides rusty on me 
now and then. You know well enough that, with- 
out you, we shall be all at each other’s throats in 
half an hour; and, if you desert us, what a rope’s 
end does it signify whether we are destroyed by the 
king’s cruisers, or by each other ? Come, come, 
noble Captain, there are black-eyed girls enough in 
the world, but where will you find so tight a sea- 
boat as the little Favourite here, manned as she is 
with a set of tearing lads, 

‘ Fit to disturb the peace of all the world. 

And rule it when ’tis wildest ? * ” 

“You are a precious fool. Jack Bunce,” said 
Cleveland, half angry, and, in despite of himself, 
half diverted, by the false tones and exaggerated 
gesture of the stage-struck pirate. 

“ It may be so, noble Captain,” answered Bunce, 
and it may be that I have my comrades in my folly. 
Here are you, now, going to play All for Love, and 
the World well Lost, and yet you cannot bear a 


286 


THE PIRATE. 


harmless bounce in blank verse — Well, I can talk 
prose for the matter, for I have news enough to tell 
— and strange news, too — ay, and stirring news to 
boot.” 

“ Well, prithee deliver them (to speak thy own 
cant) like a man of this world.” 

“The Stromness fishers will accept nothing for 
their provisions and trouble,” said Bunce — “ there 
is a wonder for you ! ” 

“ And for what reason, I pray ? ” said Cleveland ; 
“ it is the first time I have ever heard of cash being 
refused at a seaport.” 

“True — they commonly lay the charges on as 
thick as if they were caulking. But here is the 
matter. The owner of the brig yonder, the father 
of your fair Imoinda, stands paymaster, by way of 
thanks for the civility with which we treated his 
daughters, and that we may not meet our due, as 
he calls it, on these shores.” 

“ It is like the frank-hearted old Udaller ! ” said 
Cleveland ; “ but is he at Stromness ? I thought he 
was to have crossed the island for Kirkwall.” 

“ He did so purpose,” said Bunce ; “ but more 
folks than King Duncan change the course of theii 
voyage. He was no sooner ashore than he was met 
with by a meddling old witch of these parts, who 
has her finger in every man’s pie, and by her coun- 
sel he changed his purpose of going to Kirkwall, 
and lies at anchor for the present in yonder white 
liouse, that you may see with your glass up the lake 
yonder. I am told the old woman clubbed also to 
pay for the sloop’s stores. Why she should shell 
out the boards I cannot conceive an idea, except 
that she is said to be a witch, and may befriend us 
as so many devils.” 


THE PIRATE. 


287 


" But who told you all this ? ” said Cleveland, 
without using his spy-glass, or seeming so much 
interested in the news as his comrade had expected. 

“Why,” replied Bunce, “I made a trip ashore 
this morning to the village, and had a can with an 
old acquaintance, who had been sent by Master 
Troil to look after matters, and I fished it all out of 
him, and more, too, than I am desirous of telling 
you, noble Captain.” 

“And who is your intelligencer?” said Cleve- 
land ; “ has he got no name ? ” 

“ Why, he is an old, fiddling, foppish acquaint- 
ance of mine, called Halcro, if you must know,” 
said Bunce. 

“ Halcro ! ” echoed Cleveland, his eyes sparkling 
with surprise — “ Claud Halcro ? — why, he went 
ashore at Inganess with Minna and her sister — 
Where are they ? ” 

“ Why, that is just what I did not want to tell 
you,” replied the confidant — “ yet hang me if I can 
help it, for I cannot baulk a fine situation. — That 
start had a fine effect — 0 ay, and the spy -glass is 
turned on the House of Stennis now ! — Well, yon- 
der they are, it must be confessed — indifferently 
well guarded, too. Some of the old witch’s people 
are come over from that mountain of an island — 
Hoy, as they call it ; and the old gentleman has got 
some fellows under arms himself. But what of 
all that, noble Captain! — give you hut the word, 
and we snap up the wenches to-night — clap 
them under hatches — man the capstern by day- 
break — up topsails — and sail with the morning 
tide.” 

“You sicken me with your villainy,” said Cleve- 
land, turning away from him. 


288 


THE PIRATE. 


U mph ! — villainy, and sicken you ! ” said Bunce 
— “ Now, pray, what have I said but what has been 
done a thousand times by gentlemen of fortune 
like ourselves ? ” 

“ Mention it ‘ not again,” said Cleveland ; then 
took a turn along the deck, in deep meditation, 
and, coming back to Bunce, took him by the hand, 
and said, “ Jack, I will see her once more.” 

“ With all my heart,” said Bunce, sullenly. 

“Once more will I see her, and it may be to 
abjure at her feet this cursed trade, and expiate 
my offences ” 

“ At the gallows ! ” said Bunce, completing the 
sentence — “ With all my heart ! — confess and be 
hanged is a most reverend proverb.” 

“ Nay — but, dear Jack ! ” said Cleveland. 

“ Dear Jack ! ” answered Bunce, in the same sul- 
len tone — “a dear sight you have been to dear 
Jack. But hold your own course — I have done 
with caring for you for ever — I should but sicken 
you with my villainous counsels.” 

“Now, must I soothe this silly fellow as if he 
were a spoiled child,” said Cleveland, speaking at 
Bunce, but not to him ; “ and yet he has sense 
enough, and bravery enough, too ; and, one would 
think, kindness enough to know that men don’t 
pick their words during a gale of wind.” 

“Why, that’s true, Clement,” said Bunce, “and 
there is my hand upon it — And, now I think upon’t, 
you shall have your last interview, for it’s out of my 
line to prevent a parting scene ; and what signifies 
a tide — we can sail by to-morrow’s ebb as well as 
by this.” 

Cleveland sighed, for Norna’s prediction rushed 
on his mind ; but the opportunity of a last meeting 


THE PIRATE. 289 

with Minna was too tempting to be resigned either 
for presentiment or prediction. 

“ I will go presently ashore to the place where 
they all are,” said Bunce ; “ and the payment of 
these stores shall serve me for a pretext ; and I will 
carry any letters or message from you to Minna 
with the dexterity of a valet de chambre.” 

“ But they have armed men — you may be in 
danger,” said Cleveland. 

“ Not a whit — not a whit,” replied Bunce. I 
protected the wenches wh^n they were in my power ; 
I warrant their father will neither wrong me, nor 
see me wronged.” 

“ You say true,” said Cleveland, “ it is not in his 
nature. I will instantly write a note to Minna.” 
And he ran down to the cabin for that purpose, 
where he wasted much paper, ere, with a trembling 
hand, and throbbing heart, he achieved such a letter 
as he hoped might prevail on Minna to permit him 
a farewell meeting on the succeeding morning. 

His adherent, Bunce, in the meanwhile, sought 
out Fletcher, of whose support to second any motion 
whatever, he accounted himself perfectly sure ; and, 
followed by this trusty satellite, he intruded him- 
self on the awful presence of Hawkins the boat- 
swain, and Derrick the quarter-master, who were 
regaling themselves with a can of rumbo, after the 
fatiguing duty of the day. 

“ Here comes he can tell us,” said Derrick. — “ So, 
Master Lieutenant, for so we must call you now, I 
think, let us have a peep into your counsels — When 
will the anchor be a-trip ? ” 

“When it pleases heaven. Master Quarter-master,” 
answered Bunce, “ for I know no more than the 
stern-post.” 

VOL. II. — 19 


290 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Why, d — n my buttons,” said Derrick, do we 
not weigh this tide ? ” 

“ Or to-morrow’s tide, at farthest ? ” said the 
Boatswain — “ Why, what have we been slaving 
the whole company for, to get all these stores 
aboard?” 

“ Gentlemen,” said Bunce, “ you are to know that 
Cupid has laid our Captain on board, carried the 
vessel, and nailed down his wits under hatches.” 

“What sort of play-stuff is all this?” said the 
Boatswain, gruffly. “ If you have any thing to tell 
us, say it in a word, like a man.” 

“ Howsomdever,” said Fletcher, “ I always think 
Jack Bunce speaks like a man, and acts like a man 
too — and so, d’ye see ” 

“ Hold your peace, dear Dick, best of bullybacks, 
be silent,” said Bunce — “ Gentlemen, in one word, 
the Captain is in love.” 

“ Why, now, only think of that ! ” said the Boat- 
swain ; “ not but that I have been in love as often 
as any man, when the ship was laid up.” 

“ Well, but,” continued Bunce, “ Captain Cleveland 
is in love — Yes — Prince V olscius is in love ; and, 
though that’s the cue for laughing on the stage, it is 
no laughing matter here. He expects to meet the 
girl to-morrow, for the last time; and that, we all 
know, leads to another meeting, and another, and 
so on till the Halcyon is down on us, and then we 
may look for more kicks than halfpence.” 

“ By — ,” said the Boatswain, with a sounding 
oath, “we’ll have a mutiny, and not allow him to go 
ashore, — eh. Derrick ? ” 

“ And the best way, too,” said Derrick. 

“What d’ye think of it. Jack Bunce?” said 
Fletcher, in whose ears this counsel sounded very 


THE PIKATE. 


191 

sagely, but who still bent a wistful look upon his 
companion. 

"‘Why, look ye, gentlemen,” said Bunce, “I will 
mutiny none, and stap my vitals if any of you shall ! ” 
“ Why, then I won’t, for one,” said Fletcher ; “ but 

what are we to do, since howsomdever ” 

“ Stopper your jaw, Dick, will you ? ” said Bunce. 
— “ Now, Boatswain, I am partly of your mind, that 
the Captain must be brought to reason by a little 
wholesome force. But you all know he has the 
spirit of a lion, and will do nothing unless he is 
allowed to hold on his own course. Well, I’ll go 
ashore and make this appointment. The girl comes 
to the rendezvous in the morning, and the Captain 
goes ashore — we take a good boat’s crew with us, 
to row against tide and current, and we will be 
ready at the signal, to jump ashore and bring off the 
Captain and the girl, whether they will or no. The 
pet-child will not quarrel with us, since we bring off 
his whirligig along with him ; and if he is still 
fractious, why, we will weigh anchor without his 
orders, and let him come to his senses at leisure, 
and know his friends another time.” 

« Why, this has a face wi,th it. Master Derrick,” 
said Hawkins. 

“Jack Bunce is always right,” said Fletcher; 
“howsomdever, the Captain will shoot some of us, 
that is certain.” 

“ Hold your jaw, Dick,” said Bunce ; “ pray, who 
the devil cares, do you think, whether you are shot 
or hanged ? ” * 

“Why, it don’t much argufy for the matter of 

that,” replied Dick ; “ howsomdever ” 

“ Be quiet, I tell you,” said his inexorable patron. 
“ and hear me out. — We will take him at unawares, 


292 


THE PIRATE. 


so that he shall neither have time to use cutlass nor 
pops ; and I myself, for the dear love I bear him, 
will be the first to lay him on his back. There is a 
nice tight-going bit of a pinnace, that is a consort of 
this chase of the Captain’s, — if I have an oppor- 
tunity, I’ll snap her up on my own account.” 

“ Yes, yes,” said Derrick, “ let you alone for keep- 
ing on the look-out for your own comforts.” 

“ Faith, nay,” said Bunce, “ I only snatch at them 
when they come fairly in my way, or are purchased 
by dint of my own wit ; and none of you could have 
fallen on such a plan as this. We shall have the 
Captain with us, head, hand, and heart and all, be- 
sides making a scene fit to finish a comedy. So I 
will go ashore to make the appointment, and do 
you possess some of the gentlemen who are still 
sober, and fit to be trusted, with the knowledge of 
our intentions.” 

Bunce, with his friend Fletcher, departed accord- 
ingly, and the two veteran pirates remained look- 
ing at each other in silence, until the Boatswain 
spoke at last. “Blow me. Derrick, if I like these 
two daffadandilly young fellows ; they are not the 
true breed. Why, they are no more like the rovers 
I have known, than this sloop is to a first-rate. 
Why, there was old Sharpe that read prayers to his 
ship’s company every Sunday, what would he have 
said to have heard it proposed to bring two wenches 
on board ? ” 

“And what would tough old Black Beard have 
said,” aftswered his companion, “if they had ex- 
pected to keep them to themselves ? They deserve 
to be made to walk the plank for their impudence ; 
or to be tied back to back and set a-diving, and I 
care not how soon.” 


THE PIRATE. 


293 


Ay, but who is to command the ship, then ? ” 
said Hawkins. 

“Why, what ails you at old Goffe?” answered 
Derrick. 

“Why, he has sucked the monkey so long and 
so often,” said the Boatswain, “ that the best of him 
is buffed. He is little better than an old woman 
when he is sober, and he is roaring mad when he is 
drunk — we have had enough of Goffe.” 

“ Why, then, what d’ye say to yourself, or to me. 
Boatswain ? ” demanded the Quarter-master. “ I am 
content to toss up for it.” 

“Rot it, no,” answered the Boatswain, after a 
moment’s consideration ; “ if we were within reach 
of the trade-winds, we might either of us make a 
shift ; but it will take all Cleveland’s navigation to 
get us there ; and so, I think, there is nothing like 
Bunce’s project for the present. Hark, he calls for 
the boat — I must go on deck and have her lowered 
for his honour, d — n his eyes.” 

The boat was lowered accordingly, made its voy- 
age up the lake with safety, and landed Bunce 
within a few hundred yards of the old mansion- 
house of Stennis. Upon arriving in front of the 
house, he found that hasty measures had been taken 
to put it in a state of defence, the lower windows 
being barricaded, with places left for use of mus- 
ketry, and a ship-gun being placed so as to com- 
mand the entrance, which was besides guarded by 
two sentinels. Bunce demanded admission at the 
gate, which was briefly and unceremoniously re- 
fused, with an exhortation to him, at the same time, 
to be gone about his business before worse came of 
it. As he continued, however, importunately to in- 
sist on seeing some one of the family, and stated his 


294 


THE PIRATE. 


business to be of the most urgent nature, Claud 
Halcro at length appeared, and, with more peevish- 
ness than belonged to his usual manner, that ad- 
mirer of glorious John expostulated with his old 
acquaintance upon his pertinacious folly. 

“You are,” he said, “like foolish moths fluttering 
about a candle, which is sure at last to consume you.” 

“And you,” said Bunce, “are a set of stingless 
drones, whom we can smoke out of your defences at 
our pleasure, with half-a-dozen of hand-grenades.” 

“ Smoke a fool’s head ! ” said Halcro ; “ take my 
advice, and mind your own matters, or there will 
be those upon you will smoke you to purpose. 
Either begone, or tell me in two words what you 
want ; for you are like to receive no welcome here 
save from a blunderbuss. We are men enough of 
ourselves ; and here is young Mordaunt Mertoun 
come from Hoy, whom your Captain so nearly 
murdered.” 

“ Tush, man,” said Bunce, “ he did but let out a 
little malapert blood.” 

“We want no such phlebotomy here,” said Claud 
Halcro ; “and, besides, your patient turns out to be 
nearer allied to us than either you or we thought of; 
so you may think how little welcome the Captain or 
any of his crew are like to be here.” 

“Well; but what if I bring money for the stores 
sent on board ? ” 

“Keep it till it is asked of you,” said Halcro. 
“ There are two bad paymasters — he that pays too 
soon, and he that does not pay at all.” 

“ Well, then, let me at lea^st give our thanks to 
the donor,” said Bunce. 

“Keep them, too, till they are asked for,” an*- 
swered the poet. 


THE PIRATE. 


^95 

** So this is all the welcome I have of you for old 
acquaintance' sake ? ” said Bunce. 

“ Why, what can I do for you, Master Altamont ? ” 
said Halcro, somewhat moved. — “ If young Mordaunt 
had had his own will, he would have welcomed you 
with ‘the red Burgundy, Number a thousand.’ For 
God’s sake begone, else the stage direction will be. 
Enter guard, and seize Altamont.” 

“ I will not give you the trouble,” said Bunce, 
" but will make my exit instantly. — Stay a moment 

— I had almost forgot that I have a slip of paper for 
the tallest of your girls there — Minna, ay, Minna is 
her name. It is a farewell from Captain Cleveland 

— you cannot refuse to give it her ? ” 

“ Ah, poor fellow ! ” said Halcro — “I comprehend 
* — I comprehend — Farewell, fair Armida — 

* ’Mid pikes and 'raid bullets, ’mid tempests and fire. 

The danger is less than in hopeless desire ! * 

Tell me hut this — is there poetry in it ? ” 

“Chokeful to the seal, with song, sonnet, and 
elegy,” answered Bunce ; “ but let her have it 
cautiously and secretly.” 

“ Tush, man ! — teach me to deliver a billet-doux ! 

— me, who have been in the Wits’ Coffee-house, and 
have seen all the toasts of the Kit-Cat Club ! — 
Minna shall have it, then, for old acquaintance’ 
sake, Mr. Altamont, and for your Captain’s sake, 
too, who has less of the core of devil about him 
than his trade requires. There can be no harm in 
a farewell letter.” 

“Farewell, then, old hoy, for ever and a day!” 
said Bunce ; and seizing the poet’s hand, gave it so 
hearty a gripe, that he left him roaring, and shaking 


296 THE PIRATE. 

his fist, like a dog when a hot cinder has fallen on 
his foot. 

Leaving the rover to return on board the vessel, 
we remain with tlie family of Magnus Troil, as- 
sembled at their kinsman’s mansion of Stennis, 
where they maintained a constant and careful watch 
against surprise. 

Mordaunt Mertoun had been received with much 
kindness by Magnus Troil, when he came to his 
assistance, with a small party of Noma’s depend- 
ants, placed by her under his command. The 
Udaller was easily satisfied that the reports in- 
stilled into his ears by the dagger, zealous to aug- 
ment his favour towards his more profitable cus- 
tomer Cleveland, by diminishing that of Mertoun, 
were without foundation. They had, indeed, been 
confirmed by the good Lady Glowrowrum, and by 
common fame, both of whom were pleased to repre- 
sent Mordaunt Mertoun as an arrogant pretender 
to the favour of the sisters of Burgh-Westra, who 
only hesitated, sultan-like, on whom he should be- 
stow the handkerchief. But common fame, Mag- 
nus considered, was a common liar, and he was 
sometimes disposed (where scandal was concerned) 
to regard the good Lady Glowrowrum as rather an 
uncommon specimen of the same genus. He there- 
fore received Mordaunt once more into full favour, 
listened with much surprise to the claim which 
Norna laid to the young man’s duty, and with no 
less interest to her intention of surrendering to 
him the considerable property which she had in- 
herited from her father. Nay, it is even probable 
that, though he gave no immediate answer to her 
hints concerning an union betwixt his eldest daugh- 
ter and her heir, he might think such an alliance 


THE PIKATE. 


297 


recommended, as well by the young man’s personal 
merits, as by the chance it gave of reuniting the 
very large estate which had been divided betwixt 
his own father and that of Norna. At all events, 
the Udaller received his young friend with much 
kindness, and he and the proprietor of the mansion 
joined in intrusting to him, as the youngest and 
most active of the party, the charge of command- 
ing the night-watch, and relieving the sentinels 
around the House of Stennis. 


CHAPTER XX. 


Of an outlawe, this is the lawe— 

That men him take and bind. 

Without pitie bang’d to be, 

And waive with the wind. 

The Ballad of the Nut Brown Maid, 

Mokdaunt had caused the sentinels who had been 
on duty since midnight to be relieved ere the peep 
of day, and having given directions that the guard 
should be again changed at sunrise, he had retired 
to a small parlour, and, placing his arms beside him, 
was slumbering in an easy-chair, when he felt him- 
self pulled by the watch-cloak in which he was 
enveloped. 

Is it sunrise,” said he, already ? ” as, starting 
up, he discovered the first beams lying level upon 
the horizon. 

“ Mordaunt 1 ” said a voice, every note of which 
thrilled to his heart. 

He turned his eyes on the speaker, and Brenda 
Troil, to his joyful astonishment, stood before him. 
As he was about to address her eagerly, he was 
checked by observing the signs of sorrow and dis- 
composure in her pale cheeks, trembling lips, and 
brimful eyes. 

“ Mordaunt,” she said, “ you must do Minna and 
me a favour — you must allow us to leave the house 
quietly, and without alarming any one, in order to 
go as far as the Standing Stones of Stennis.” 


THE PIRATE. 


299 


What freak can this be, dearest Brenda ? ” 
said Mordaunt, much amazed at the request — 

some Orcadian observance of superstition, per- 
haps ; but the time is too dangerous, and my charge 
from your father too strict, that I should permit 
you to pass without his consent. Consider, dearest 
Brenda, I am a soldier on duty, and must obey 
orders.” 

“ Mordaunt,” said Brenda, “ this is no jesting 
matter — Minna’s reason, nay, Minna’s life, depends 
on your giving us this permission.” 

“ And for what purpose ? ” said Mordaunt ; “ let 
me at least know that.” 

“For a wild and a desperate purpose,” replied 
Brenda — “It is that she may meet Cleveland.” 

“ Cleveland ! ” said Mordaunt — “ Should the 
villain come ashore, he shall be welcomed with a 
shower of rifle-balls. Let me within a hundred 
yards of him,” he added, grasping his piece, “and 
all the mischief he has done me shall be balanced 
with an ounce bullet ! ” 

“ His death will drive Minna frantic,” said 
Brenda ; “ and him who injures Minna, Brenda 
will never again look upon.” 

“ This is madness — raving madness ! ” said Mor 
daunt — “ Consider your honour — consider your 
duty.” 

“I can consider nothing but Minna’s danger,” 
said Brenda, breaking into a flood of tears ; “ her 
former illness was nothing to the state she has been 
in all night. She holds in her hand his letter, 
written in characters of fire, rather than of ink, 
imploring her to see him, for a last farewell, as she 
would save a mortal body, and an immortal soul ; 
pledging himself for her safety; and declaring no 


300 


THE PIRATE. 


power shall force him from the coast till he has 
seen her. — You must let us pass.” 

“ It is impossible ! ” replied Mordaunt, in great 
perplexity — “ This ruffian has imprecations enough, 
doubtless, at his fingers’ ends — but what better 
pledge has he to offer? — I cannot permit Minna 
to go.” 

“ I suppose,” said Brenda, somewhat reproach- 
fully, while she dried her tears, yet still continued 
sobbing, “ that there is something in what Norna 
spoke of betwixt Minna and you ; and that you are 
too jealous of this poor wretch, to allow him even 
to speak with her an instant before his departure.” 

“ You are unjust,” said Mordaunt, hurt, and yet 
somewhat flattered by her suspicions, — “ you are 
as unjust as you are imprudent. You know — you 
cannot but know — that Minna is chiefly dear to me 
as your sister. Tell me, Brenda — and tell me truly 
— if I aid you in this folly, have you no suspicion 
of the Pirate’s faith ! ” 

“ No, none,” said Brenda ; “ if I had any, do 
you think I would urge you thus? He is wild 
and unhappy, but I think we may in this trust 
him.” 

“ Is the appointed place the Standing Stones, and 
the time daybreak ? ” again demanded Mordaunt. 

“ It is, and the time is come,” said Brenda, — “ for 
Heaven’s sake let us depart ! ” 

“I will myself,” said Mordaunt, “relieve the 
sentinel at the front door for a few minutes, and 
suffer you to pass. — You will not protract this in- 
terview, so full of danger ? ” 

“We will not,” said Brenda; “and you, on your 
part, will not ftvail yourself of this unhappy man’s 
venturing hither, to harm or to seize him ? ” 


THE PIRATE. 


301 


“ Rely on my honour,” said Mordaunt — “ He 
shall have no harm, unless he offers auy.” 

“ Then I go to call my sister,” said Brenda, and 
quickly left the apartment. 

Mordaunt considered the matter for an instant, 
and then going to the sentinel at the front door, he 
desired him to run instantly to the main-guard, and 
order the whole to turn out with their arms — to see 
the order obeyed, and to return when they were in 
readiness. Meantime, he himself, he said, would 
remain upon the post. 

During the interval of the sentinel’s absence, the 
front door was slowly opened, and Minna and 
Brenda appeared, muffled in their mantles. The 
former leaned on her sister, and kept her face bent 
on the ground, as one who felt ashamed of the step 
she was about to take. Brenda also passed her 
lover in silence, but threw back upon him a look of 
gratitude and affection, which doubled, if possible, 
his anxiety for their safety. 

The sisters, in the meanwhile, passed out of sight 
of the house ; when Minna, whose step, till that 
time, had been faint and feeble, began to erect her 
person, and to walk with a pace so firm and so swift, 
that Brenda, who had some difficulty to keep up 
with her, could not forbear remonstrating on the 
imprudence of hurrying her spirits, and exhausting 
her force, by such unnecessary haste. 

“ Fear not, my dearest sister,” said Minna ; “ the 
spirit which I now feel will, and must, sustain me 
through the dreadful interviews I could not but 
move with a drooping head, and dejected pace, while 
I was in view of one who must necessarily deem me 
deserving of his pity, or his scorn. But you know, 
my dearest Brenda, and Mordaunt shall also know, 


302 


THE PIRATE. 


that the love I bore to that unhappy man, was as 
pure as the rays of that sun, that is now reflected 
on the waves. And I dare attest that glorious sun, 
and yonder blue heaven, to bear me witness, that, 
but to urge him to change his unhappy course of 
life, I had not, for all the temptations this round 
world holds, ever consented to see him more.” 

As she spoke thus, in a tone which afforded much 
confidence to Brenda, the sisters attained the sum- 
mit of a rising ground, whence they commanded a 
full view of the Orcadian Stonehenge, consisting of 
a huge circle and semicircle of the Standing Stones, 
as they are called, which already glimmered a grey- 
ish white in the rising sun, and projected far to the 
westward their long gigantic shadows. At another 
time, the scene would have operated powerfully on 
the imaginative mind of Minna, and interested the 
curiosity at least of her less sensitive sister. But, 
at this moment, neither was at leisure to receive 
the impressions which this stupendous monument 
of antiquity is so well calculated to impress on the 
feelings of those who behold it; for they saw, in 
the lower lake, beneath what is termed the Bridge of 
Broisgar, a boat well manned and armed, which had 
disembarked one of its crew, who advanced alone, 
and wrapped in a naval cloak, towards that monu- 
mental circle which they themselves were about to 
reach from another quarter. 

“ They are many, and they are armed,” said the 
startled Brenda, in a whisper to her sister. 

“ It is for precaution’s sake,” answered Minna, 
“ which, alas, their condition renders but too neces- 
sary. Fear no treachery from him — that, at least, 
is not his vice.” 

As she spoke, or shortly afterwards, she attained 


THE PIRATE. 


303 


the centre of the circle, on which, in the midst of the 
tall erect pillars of rude stone that are raised around, 
lies one flat and prostrate, supported by short stone 
pillars, of which some relics are still visible, that had 
once served, perhaps, the purpose of an altar. 

“ Here,” she said, “ in heathen times (if we may 
believe legends, which have cost me but too dear) 
our ancestors offered sacrifices to heathen deities — 
and here will I, from my soul, renounce, abjure, and 
offer up to a better and a more merciful God than 
was known to them, the vain ideas with which my 
youthful imagination has been seduced.” 

She stood by the prostrate table of stone, and saw 
Cleveland advance towards her, with a timid pace, 
and a downcast look, as different from his usual 
character and bearing, as Minna’s high air and lofty 
demeanour, and calm contemplative posture, were 
distant from those of the love-lorn and broken- 
hearted maiden, whose weight had almost borne 
down the support of her sister as she left the House 
of Stennis. If the belief of those is true, who as- 
sign these singular monuments exclusively to the 
Druids, Minna might have seemed the Haxa, or 
high priestess of the order, from whom some cham- 
pion of the tribe expected inauguration. Or, if we 
hold the circles of Gothic and Scandinavian origin, 
she might have seemed a descended Vision of Freya, 
the spouse of the Thundering Deity, before whom 
some bold Sea-King or champion bent with an awe, 
which no mere mortal terror could have inflicted 
upon him. Brenda, overwhelmed with inexpressible 
fear and doubt, remained a pace or two behind, 
anxiously observing the motions of Cleveland, and 
attending to nothing around, save to him and to her 
sister. 


THE PIRATE. 


Cleveland approached within two yards of Minna, 
and bent his head to the ground. There was a 
dead pause, until Minna said, in a firm but melan- 
choly tone, “ Unhappy man, why didst thou seek 
this aggravation of our woe ? Depart in peace, and 
may Heaven direct thee to a better course than that 
which thy life has yet held ! ” 

“Heaven will not aid me,” said Cleveland, “ex- 
cepting by your voice. I came hither rude and 
wild, scarce knowing that my trade, my desperate 
trade, was more criminal in the sight of man or of 
Heaven, than that of those privateers whom your 
law acknowledges. I was bred in it, and, but for 
the wishes you have encouraged me to form, I should 
have perhaps died in it, desperate and impenitent. 
0, do not throw me from you ! let me do something 
to redeem what I have done amiss, and do not leave 
your own work half-finished ! ” 

“ Cleveland,” said Minna, “ I will not reproach 
you with abusing my inexperience, or with availing 
yourself of those delusions which the credulity of 
early youth had flung around me, and which led me 
to confound your fatal course of life with the deeds 
of our ancient heroes. Alas, when I saw your fol- 
lowers, that illusion was no more ! — but I do not 
upbraid you with its having existed. Go, Cleveland ; 
detach yourself from those miserable wretches with 
whom you are associated, and believe me, that if 
Heaven yet grants you the means of distinguishing 
your name by one good or glorious action, there are 
eyes left in those lonely islands, that will weep as 
much for joy, as — as — they must now do for sorrow.” 

“ And is this all ? ” said Cleveland ; “ and may 
I not hope, that if I extricate myself from my pres- 
ent associates — if I can gain my pardon by being 


THE PIRATE. 


305 


as bold in the right, as I have been too often in the 
wrong cause — if, after a term, I care not how long 
— but still a term which may have an end, I can 
boast of having redeemed my fame — may I not — 
may I not hope that Minna may forgive what my 
God and my country shall have pardoned ? ” 

•“ Never, Cleveland, never ! ” said Minna, with 
the utmost firmness ; “ on this spot we part, and 
part for ever, and part without longer indulgence. 
Think of me as of one dead, if you continue as you 
now are ; but if, which may Heaven grant, you 
change your fatal course, think of me then as one, 
whose morning and evening prayers will be for your 
happiness, though she has lost her own. — Farewell, 
Cleveland ! ” 

He kneeled, overpowered by his own bitter feel- 
ings, to take the hand which she held out to him, 
and in that instant, his confidant Bunce, starting 
from behind one of the large upright pillars, his 
eyes wet with tears, exclaimed — 

“ Never saw such a parting scene on any stage ! 
But I’ll be d — d if you make your exit as you 
expect ! ” 

And so saying, ere Cleveland could employ either 
remonstrance or resistance, and indeed before he 
could get upon his feet, he easily secured him by 
pulling him down on his back, so that two or three 
of the boat’s crew seized him by the arms and legs, 
and began to hurry him towards the lake. Minna 
and Brenda shrieked, and attempted to fly; but 
Derrick snatched up the former with as much ease 
as a falcon pounces on a pigeon, while Bunce, with 
an oath or two which were intended to be of a con- 
solatory nature, seized on Brenda ; and the whole 
party, with two or three of the other pirates, who, 

yOL. II. — 20 


3o6 


THE PIRATE. 


stealing from the water-side, had accompanied 
them on the ambuscade, began hastily to run 
towards the boat, which was left in charge of two 
of their number. Their course, however, was un- 
expectedly interrupted, and their criminal purpose 
entirely frustrated. 

When Mordaunt Mertoun had turned out his 
guard in arms, it was with the natural purpose of 
watching over the safety of the two sisters. They 
had accordingly closely observed the motions of the 
pirates, and when they saw so many of them leave 
the boat and steal towards the place of rendezvous 
assigned to Cleveland, they naturally suspected 
treachery, and by cover of an old hollow way or 
trench, which perhaps had anciently been connected 
with the monumental circle, they had thrown them- 
selves unperceived between the pirates and their 
boat. At the cries of the sisters, they started up 
and placed themselves in the way of the ruffians, 
presenting their pieces, which, notwithstanding, 
they dared not fire, for fear of hurting the young 
ladies, secured as they were in the rude grasp of 
the marauders. Mordaunt, however, advanced with 
the speed of a wdld deer on Bunce, who, loath to 
quit his prey, yet unable to defend himself other- 
wise, turned to this side and that alternately, ex- 
posing Brenda to the blows which Mordaunt offered 
at him. This defence, however, proved in vain 
against a youth, possessed of the lightest foot and 
most active hand ever known in Zetland, and after 
a feint or two, Mordaunt brought the pirate to the 
ground with a stroke from the but of the carabine, 
which he dared not use otherwise. At the same 
time fire-arms were discharged on either side by 
those who were liable to no such cause of forbear- 


THE PIRATE. 


307 


ance, and the pirates who had hold of Cleveland, 
dropped him, naturally enough, to provide for their 
own defence or retreat. But they only added to 
the numbers of their enemies; for Cleveland, per- 
ceiving Minna in the arms of Derrick, snatched her 
from the ruffian with one hand, and with the other 
shot him dead on the spot. Two or three more of 
the pirates fell or were taken, the rest fled to their 
boat, pushed off, then turned their broadside to the 
shore, and fired repeatedly on the Orcadian party, 
which they returned, with little injury on either 
side. Meanwhile Mordaunt, having first seen that 
the sisters were at liberty and in full flight towards 
the house, advanced on Cleveland with his cutlass 
drawn. The pirate presented a pistol, and calling 
out at the same time, — “ Mordaunt, I never missed 
my aim,” he fired into the air, and threw it into 
the lake ; then drew his cutlass, brandished it 
round his head, and flung that also as far as his 
arm could send it, in the same direction. Yet 
such was the universal belief of his personal strength 
and resources, that Mordaunt still used precau- 
tion, as, advancing on Cleveland, he asked if he 
surrendered. 

“ I surrender to no man,” said the Pirate-captain; 
“ but you may see I have thrown away my weapons.” 

He was immediately seized by some of the Orca- 
dians without his offering any resistance ; but the 
instant interference of Mordaunt prevented his be- 
ing roughly treated, or bound. The victors con- 
ducted him to a well-secured upper apartment in 
the Plouse of Stennis, and placed a sentinel at the 
door. Bunce and Fletcher, both of whom had been 
stretched on the field during the skirmish, were 
lodged in the same chamber; and two prisoners, 


3o8 


THE PIRATE. 


who appeared of lower rank, were confined in a 
vault belonging to the mansion. 

Without pretending to describe the joy of Mag- 
nus Troil, who, when awakened by the noise and 
firing, found his daughters safe, and his enemy a 
prisoner, we shall only say, it was so great, that he 
forgot, for the time at least, to enquire what cir- 
cumstances were those which had placed them in 
danger ; that he hugged Mordaunt to his breast a 
thousand times, as their preserver ; and swore as . 
often by the bones of his sainted namesake, that if 
he had a thousand daughters, so tight a lad, and so 
true a friend, should have the choice of them, let 
Lady Glowrowrum say what she would. 

A very different scene was passing in the prison- 
chamber of the unfortunate Cleveland and his asso- 
ciates. The Captain sat by the window, his eyes 
bent on the prospect of the sea which it presented, 
and was seemingly so intent on it, as to be insen- 
sible of the presence of the others. Jack Bunce 
stood meditating some ends of verse, in order to 
make his advances towards a reconciliation with 
Cleveland; for he began to be sensible, from the 
consequences, that the part he had played towards 
his Captain, however well intended, was neither 
lucky in its issue, nor likely to be well taken. His 
admirer and adherent Fletcher lay half asleep, as it 
seemed, on a truckle-bed in the room, without the 
least attempt to interfere in the conversation which 
ensued. 

“ Nay, but speak to me, Clement,” said the peni- 
tent Lieutenant, “if it be but to swear at me for my 
stupidity ! 

‘ What 1 not an oath ? — Nay, then the world goes hard. 

If Clifford cannot spare his friends an oath.* 


THE PIRATE. 


309 


“ I prithee peace, and be gone ! ” said Cleveland ; 
“ I have one bosom friend left yet, and you will 
make me bestow its contents on you, or on myself.” 

“ I have it ! ” said Bunce, “ I have it ! ” and on he 
went in the vein of Jaffier — 

“ ‘ Then, by the hell I merit, I’ll not leave thee, 

Till to thyself at least thoii’rt reconciled, 

However thy resentment deal with me ! ’ ” 

“ I pray you once more to be silent,” said Cleve- 
land — “ Is it not enough that you liave undone me 
with your treachery, but you must stun me with 
your silly buffoonery ? — I would not have believed 
you would have lifted a finger against me. Jack, of 
any man or devil in yonder unhappy ship.” 

“ Who, I ? ” exclaimed Bunce, “ I lift a finger 
against you ! — and if I did, it was in pure love, and 
to make you the happiest fellow that ever trode a 
deck, with your mistress beside you, and fifty fine 
fellows at your command. Here is Dick Fletcher 
can bear witness I did all for the best, if he would 
but speak, instead of lolloping there like a Dutch 
dogger laid up to be careened. — Get up, Dick, and 
speak for me, won’t you ? ” 

“ Why, yes. Jack Bunce,” answered Fletcher, 
raising himself with difficulty, and speaking feebly, 
“ I will if I can — and I always knew you spoke 
and did for the best — but howsomdever, d’ye see, 
it has turned out for the worst for me this time, for 
I am bleeding to death, I think.” 

“ You cannot be such an ass ! ” said Jack Bunce, 
springing to his assistance, as did Cleveland. But 
human aid came too late — he sunk back on the 
bed, and, turning on his face, expired without a 
groan. 


310 


THE PIRATE. 


I always thought him a d — d fool,” said Bunce, 
as he wiped a tear from his eye, “ but never such a 
consummate idiot as to hop the perch so sillily. 
I have lost the best follower ” — and he again wiped 
his eye. 

Cleveland looked on the dead body, the rugged 
features of which had remained unaltered by the 
death-pang — “A bull-dog,” he said, “ of the true 
British breed, and, with a better counsellor, would 
have been a better man.” 

“ You may say that of some other folks, too, Cap- 
tain, if you are minded to do them justice,” said 
Bunce. 

“ I may indeed, and especially of yourself,”, said 
Cleveland, in reply. 

“ Why then, say, Jack, I forgive you!' said Bunce ; 
“ it’s but a short word, and soon spoken.” 

“ I forgive you from all my soul. Jack,” said 
Cleveland, who had resumed his situation at the 
window ; “ and the rather that your folly is of little 
consequence — the morning is come that must bring 
ruin on us all.” 

“ What ! you are thinking of the old woman’s 
prophecy you spoke of ? ” said Bunce. 

“ It will soon be accomplished,” answered Cleve- 
land. “ Come hither ; what do you take yon large 
square-rigged vessel for, that you see doubling the 
headland on the east, and opening the Bay of 
Stromness ? ” 

“Why, I can’t make her well out,” said Bunce, 
“ but yonder is old Goffe, takes her for a West In- 
dia man loaded with rum and sugar, I suppose, for 
d — n me if he does not slip cable, and stand out to 
her ! ” 

“ Instead of running into the shoal-water, which 


THE PIRATE. 


311 

was his only safety,” said Cleveland — The fool ! 
the dotard ! the drivelling, drunken idiot ! — he will 
get his flip hot enough ; for yon is the Halcyon — 
See, she hoists her colours and fires a broadside! 
and there will soon he an end of the Fortune’s Fa- 
vourite ! I only, hope they will fight her to the last 
plank. The Boatswain used to be stanch enough, 
and so is Goffe, though an incarnate demon. — Now 
she shoots away, with all the sail she can spread, 
and that shows some sense.” 

“Up goes the Jolly Hodge, the old black flag, 
with the death’s head and hour-glass, and that 
shows some spunk,” added his comrade. 

“ The hour-glass is turned for us. Jack, for this 
bout — our sand is running fast. — Fire away yet, 
my roving lads ! The deep sea or the blue sky, 
rather than a rope and a yard-arm 1 ” 

There was a moment of anxious and dead silence; 
the sloop, though hard pressed, maintaining still a 
running fight, and the frigate continuing in full 
chase, but scarce returning a shot. At length the 
vessels neared each other, so as to show that the 
man-of-war intended to board the sloop, instead of 
sinking her, probably to secure the plunder which 
might be in the pirate vessel. 

“ Now, Goffe — now, Boatswain ! ” exclaimed 
Cleveland, in an ecstasy of impatience, and as if 
they could have heard his commands, “ stand by 
sheets and tacks — rake her with a broadside, when 
you are under her bows, then about ship, and go 
off on the other tack like a wild-goose. The sails 
shiver — the helm’s a-lee — Ah !— deep-sea sink the^ 
lubbers ! — they miss stays, and the frigate runs 
them aboard ! ” 

Accordingly, the various manoeuvres of the chase 


312 


THE PIRATE. 


had brought them so near, that Cleveland, with his 
spy-glass, could see the man-of-war’s-men boarding 
by the yards and bowsprit, in irresistible numbers, 
their naked cutlasses Hashing in the sun, when, at 
that critical moment, both ships were enveloped in 
a cloud of thick black smoke, which suddenly arose 
on board the captured pirate. 

“ Exeunt omnes ! ” said Bunce, with clasped hands. 

“There went the Fortune’s Favourite, ship and 
crew ! ” said Cleveland, at the same instant. 

But the smoke immediately clearing away, showed 
that the damage had only been partial, and that, 
from want of a sufficient quantity of powder, the 
pirates had failed in their desperate attempt to blow 
up their vessel with the Halcyon. 

Shortly after the action was over. Captain Weather- 
port of the Halcyon sent an officer and a party of 
marines to the House of Stennis, to demand from 
the little garrison the pirate seamen who were their 
prisoners, and, in particular, Cleveland and Bunce, 
who acted as Captain and Lieutenant of the gang. 

This was a demand which* was not to be resisted, 
though Magnus Troil could have wished sincerely 
that the roof under which he lived had been allowed 
as an asylum at least to Cleveland. But the officer’s 
orders were peremptory ; and he added, it was Cap- 
tain Weatherport’s intention to. land the other pris- 
oners, and send the whole, with a sufficient escort, 
across the island to Kirkwall, in order to undergo 
an examination there before the civil authorities, 
previous to their being sent off to London for trial 
at the High Court of Admiralty. Magnus could 
‘therefore only intercede for good usage to Cleveland, 
and that he might not be stripped or plundered, 
which the officer, struck by his good mien, and 


THE PIRATE. 


313 


compassionating his situation, readily promised. 
The honest Udaller would have said something in 
the way of comfort to Cleveland himself, but he 
could not find words to express it, and only shook 
his head. 

"Old friend,” said Cleveland, "you may have 
much to complain of — yet you pity instead of ex- 
ulting over me — for the sake of you and yours, I will 
never harm human being more. Take this from 
me — my last hope, hut my last temptation also ” — 
he drew from his bosom a pocket-pistol, and gave 
it to Magnus Troil. “ Remember me to — But nd 
— let every one forget me. — I am your prisoner, 
sir,” said he to the officer. 

" And I also,” said poor Bunce ; and putting on a 
theatrical countenance, he ranted, with no very per- 
ceptible faltering in his tone, the words of Pierre : 

“ ‘Captain, you should be a gentleman of honour: 

Keep off the rabble, that I may have room 

To entertain my fate, and die with decency.’ 


CHAPTEK XXL 


Joy, joy, in London now ! 

Southey. 

The news of the capture of the Kover reached Kirk- 
wall, about an hour before noon, and filled all men 
with wonder and with joy. Little business was 
that day done at the Fair, whilst people of all ages 
and occupations streamed from the place to see the 
prisoners as they were marched towards Kirkwall, 
and to triumph in the different appearance which 
they now bore, from that which they had formerly 
exhibited when ranting, swaggering, and bullying 
in the streets of that town. The bayonets of the 
marines were soon seen to glisten in the sun, and 
then came on the melancholy tfoop of captives, 
handcuffed two and two together. Their finery had 
been partly torn from them by their captors, partly 
hung in rags about them ; many were wounded and 
covered with blood, many blackened and scorched 
with the explosion, by which a few of the most des- 
perate had in vain striven to blow up the vessel. 
Most of them seemed sullen and impenitent, some 
were more becomingly affected with their condi- 
tion, and a few braved it out, and sung the same 
ribald songs to which they had made the streets of 
Kirkwall ring when they were in their frolics. 

The Boatswain and Goffe, coupled together, ex- 
hausted themselves in threats and imprecations 


THE PIRATE. 


315 


against each other ; the former charging Goffe with 
want of seamanship, and the latter alleging that the 
Boatswain had prevented him from firing the pow- 
der that was stowed forward, and so sending them 
all to the other world together. Last came Cleve- 
land and Bunce, who were permitted to walk un- 
shackled ; the decent melancholy, yet resolved 
manner of the former, contrasting strongly with the 
stage strut and swagger which poor Jack thought 
it fitting to assume, in order to conceal some less 
dignified emotions. The former was looked upon 
with compassion, the latter with a mixture of scorn 
and pity ; while most of the others inspired horror, 
and even fear, by their looks and their language. 

There was one individual in Kirkwall, who was so 
far from hastening to see the sight which attracted 
all eyes, that he was not even aware of the event 
which agitated the town. This was the elder Mer- 
toun, whose residence Kirkwall had been for two 
or three days, part of which had been spent in at- 
tending to some judicial proceedings, undertaken at 
the instance of the Procurator Fiscal, against that 
grave professor, Bryce Snailsfoot. In consequence 
of an inquisition into the proceedings of this wor- 
thy trader, Cleveland’s chest, with his papers and 
other matters therein contained, had been restored 
to Mertoun, as the lawful custodier thereof, until 
the right owner should be in a situation to establish 
his right to them. Mertoun was at first desirous to 
throw back upon Justice the charge which she was 
disposed to intrust him with ; but, on perusing one 
or two of the papers, he hastily changed his mind 
— in broken words, requested the Magistrate to let 
the chest be sent to his lodgings, and, hastening 
homeward, bolted himself into the room, to consider 


THE PIRATE. 


3I<5 

and digest the singular information which chance 
had thus conveyed to him, and which increased, in 
a tenfold degree, his impatience for an interview 
with the mysterious Norna of the Fitful-head. 

It may be remembered that she had required of 
him, when they met in the Churchyard of Saint 
Ninian, to attend in the outer isle of the Cathedral 
of Saint Magnus, at the hour of noon, on the fifth 
day of the Fair of Saint Olla, there to meet a per- 
son by whom the fate of Mordaunt would be ex- 
plained to him. — “ It must be herself,” he said ; 
“ and that I should see her at this moment is in- 
dispensable. How to find her sooner, I know not ; 
and better lose a few hours even in this exigence, 
than offend her by a premature attempt to force 
myself on her presence.” 

Long, therefore, before noon — long before the 
town of Kirkwall was agitated by the news of the 
events on the other side of the island, the elder 
Mertoun was pacing the deserted aisle of the Ca- 
thedral, awaiting, with agonizing eagerness, the 
expected communication from Norna. The bell 
tolled twelve — no door opened — no one was seen 
to enter the Cathedral; but the last sounds had 
not ceased to reverberate through the vaulted roof, 
when, gliding from one of the interior side-aisles, 
Norna stood before him. Mertoun, indifferent to 
the apparent mystery of her sudden approach, (with 
the secret of which the reader is acquainted,) went 
up to her at once, with the earnest ejaculation — 
“ Ulla — Ulla Troil — aid me to save our unhappy 
boy ! ” 

“ To Ulla Troil,” said Korna, “ I answer not — 
I gave that name to the winds, on the night that 
cost me a father ! ” 


THE pirate. 


317 


“ Speak not of that night of horror,” said Mer- 
toun ; “ we have need of our reason — let us not 
think on recollections which may destroy it ; but 
aid me, if thou canst, to save our unfortunate 
child ! ” 

“Vaughan,” answered Norna, “he is already 
saved — long since saved ; think you a mother’s 
hand — and that of such a mother as I am — would 
await your crawling, tardy, ineffectual assistance? 
No, Vaughan — I make myself known to you, hut 
to show my triumph over you — it is the only re- 
venge which the powerful Norna permits herself to 
take for the wrongs of Ulla Troil.” 

“ Have you indeed saved him — saved him from 
the murderous crew?” said Mertoun, or Vaughan 
— “ speak ! — and speak truth ! — I will believe every 
thing — all you would require me to assent to ! — 
prove to me only he is escaped and safe ! ” 

“ Escaped and safe, by my means,” said Norna 

— “ safe, and in assurance of an honoured and happy 
alliance. Yes, great unbeliever!- — yes, wise and 
self-opinioned infidel ! — these were the works of 
Norna ! I knew you many a year since ; but never 
had I made myself known to you, save with the 
triumphant consciousness of having controlled the 
destiny that threatened my son. All combined 
against him — planets which threatened drowning 

— combinations which menaced blood — but my 
skill was superior to all. — I arranged • — I combined 
— I found means — I made them — each disaster 
has been averted ; — and what infidel on earth, or 
stubborn demon beyond the bounds of earth, shall 
hereafter deny my power ? ” 

The wild ecstasy with which she spoke, so much 
resembled triumphant insanity, that Mertoun an- 


3i8 


THE PIRATE. 


swered — “ Were your pretensions less lofty, and 
your speech more plain, I should be better assured 
of my son’s safety.” 

“ Doubt on, vain sceptic ! ” said Norna — “ And 
yet know, that not only is our son safe, but ven- 
geance is mine, though I sought it not — vengeance 
on the powerful implement of the darker Influences 
by whom my schemes were so often thwarted, and 
even the life of my son endangered. — Yes, take it 
as a guarantee of the truth of my speech, that 
Cleveland — the pirate Cleveland — even now enters 
Kirkwall as a prisoner, and will soon expiate with 
his life the having shed blood which is of kin to 
Norna’s.” 

“ Who didst thou say was prisoner ? ” exclaimed 
Mertoun, with a voice of thunder — “ Who, woman, 
didst thou say should expiate his crimes with his 
life ? ” 

“ Cleveland — the pirate Cleveland ! ” answered 
Norna ; “ and by me, whose counsel he scorned, he 
has been permitted to meet his fate.” 

Thou most wretched of women ! ” said Mer- 
toun, speaking from between his clenched teeth, — 
“ thou hast slain thy son, as well as thy father ! ” 

“ My son ! — what son ? — what mean you ? — 
Mordaunt is your son — your only son ! ” exclaimed 
Norna — “ is he not ? — tell me quickly — is he not ? ” 
“ Mordaunt is indeed son,” said Mertoun — 
“ the laws, at least, gave him to me as such — But, 
0 unhappy Ulla ! Cleveland is your son as well 
as mine — blood of our blood, bone of our bone ; 
and if you have given him to death, I will end my 
wretched life along with him ! ” 

“ Stay — hold — stop, Vaughan ! ” said Norna ; “ I 
am not yet ov^come — prove but to me the truth 


THE PIRATE. 


319 


of what you say, I would find help, if I should evoke 
hell ! — But prove your words, else believe them I 
cannot.” 

** Thou help ! wretched, overweening woman ! — 
in what have thy combinations and thy stratagems 

— the legerdemain of lunacy — the mere quackery 
of insanity — in what have these involved thee ? — 
and yet I will speak to thee as reasonable — nay, I 
will admit thee as powerful — Hear, then, Ulla, the 
proofs which you demand, and find a remedy, if 
thou canst: — 

“ When I fled from Orkney,” he continued, after 
a pause — “ it is now five-and-twenty years since 

— I bore with me the unhappy offspring to whom 
you had given light. It was sent to me by one of 
your kinswomen, with an account of your illness, 
which was soon followed by a generally received 
belief of your death. It avails not to tell in what 
misery I left Europe. I found refuge in Hispaniola, 
wherein a fair young Spaniard undertook the task 
of comforter. I married her — she became mother 
of the youth called Mordaunt Mertoun.” 

“ You married her ! ” said Norna, in a tone of 
deep reproach. 

“I did, Ulla,” answered Mertoun ; “but you were 
avenged. She proved faithless, and her infidelity 
left me in doubts whether the child she bore had a 
right to call me father — But I also was avenged.” 

“ You murdered her ! ” said Norna, with a dread- 
ful shriek. 

“ I did that,” said Mertoun, without a more direct 
reply, “which made an instant flight from His- 
paniola necessary. Your son I carried with me to 
Tortuga, where we had a small settlement. Mor- 
daunt Vaughan, my son by marriage, about three 


320 


THE PIRATE. 


or four years younger, was residing in Port-Royal, 
for the advantages of an English education. I re- 
solved never to see him again, but I continued to 
support him. Our settlement was plundered by 
the Spaniards, when Clement was but fifteen — Want 
came to aid despair and a troubled conscience. I 
became a corsair, and involved Clement in the same 
desperate trade. His skill and bravery, though 
then a mere boy, gained him a separate command ; 
and after a lapse of two or three years, while we 
were on different cruises, my crew rose on me, and 
left me for dead on the beach of one of the Ber- 
mudas. I recovered, however, and my first en- 
quiries, after a tedious illness, were after Clement. 
He, I heard, had been also marooned by a rebellious 
crew, and put ashore on a desert islet, to perish with 
want — I believed he had so perished.” 

“ And what assures you that he did not ? ” said 
Ulla ; “ or how comes this Cleveland to be identi- 
fied with Vaughan ?” 

“ To change a name is common with such adven- 
turers,” answered Mertoun, “ and Clement had 
apparently found that of Vaughan had become too 
notorious — and this change, in his case, prevented 
me from hearing any tidings of him. It was then 
that remorse seized me, and that, detesting all nature, 
but especially the sex to which Louisa belonged, 
I resolved to do penance in the wild islands of 
Zetland for the rest of my life. To subject myself 
to fasts and to the scourge, was the advice of the 
holy Catholic priests, whom I consulted. But I 
devised a nobler penance — I determined to bring 
with me the unhappy boy Mordaunt, and to keep 
always before me the living memorial of my misery 
and my guilt. I have done so, and I have thought 


THE PIRATE. 


321 


over both, till reason has often trembled on hei 
throne. And now, to drive me to utter madness, 
my Clement — my own, my undoubted son, revives 
from the dead to be consigned to an infamous death, 
by the machinations of his own mother ! ” 

“Away, away !” said Norna, with a laugh, when 
she had heard the story to an end, “ this is a legend 
framed by the old corsair, to interest my aid in favour 
of a guilty comrade. How could I mistake Mor- 
daunt for my son, their ages being so different ? ” 

“ The dark complexion and manly stature may 
have done' much,” said Basil Mertoun ; “strong 
imagination must have done the rest.” 

“ But, give me proofs — give me proofs that this 
Cleveland is my son, and, believe me, this sun shall 
sooner sink in the east, than they shall have power 
to harm a hair of his head.” 

“These papers, these journals,” said Mertoun, 
offering the pocket-book. 

“I cannot read them,” she said, after an effort, 
“ my brain is dizzy.” 

“ Clement has also tokens which you may remem- 
ber, but they must have become the booty of his 
captors. He had a silver box with a Runic inscrip- 
tion, with which in far other days you presented me 
— a golden chaplet.” 

“ A box ! ” said Norna, hastily ; “ Cleveland gave 
me one but a day since — I have never looked at 
it till now.” 

Eagerly she pulled it out — .eagerly examined the 
legend around the lid, and as eagerly exclaimed — 
“ They may now indeed call me Reimkennar, for by 
this rhyme I know myself murderess of my son, 
as well as of my father ! ” 

The conviction of the strong delusion under 
VQJ-. Jl. — 21 


322 


THE PIRATE. 


which she had laboured, was so overwhelming, that 
she sunk down at the foot of one of the pillars — 
Mertoun shouted for help, though in despair of 
receiving any ; the sexton, however, entered, and, 
hopeless of all assistance from Norna, the distracted 
father rushed out, to learn, if possible, the fate of 
his son. 


CHAPTEE XXIL 


Go, some of you cry a reprieve I 

Beggar*s Opera, 

Captain Weatherport had, before this time, reached 
Kirkwall in person, and was received with great joy 
and thankfulness by the Magistrates, who had as- 
sembled in council for the purpose. The Provost, in 
particular, expressed himself delighted with the pro- 
vidential arrival of the Halcyon, at the very con- 
juncture when the Pirate could hot escape her. 
The Captain looked a little surprised, and said — 
“For that, sir, you may' thank the information you 
yourself supplied.” 

“ That I supplied ? ” said the Provost, somewhat 
astonished. 

“ Yes, sir,” answered Captain Weatherport, “ I 
understand you to be George Torfe, Chief Magistrate 
of Kirkwall, who subscribes this letter.” 

The astonished Provost took the letter addressed 
to Captain Weatherport of the Halcyon, stating the 
arrival, force, &c., of the pirates’ vessel ; but adding, 
that they had heard of the Halcyon being on the 
coast, and that they were on their guard and ready 
to baffle her, by going among the shoals, and through 
the islands, and holms, where the frigate could not 
easily follow ; and at the worst, they were desperate 
enough to propose running the sloop ashore and 
blowing her up, by which much booty and treasure 
would be lost to the captors. The letter, therefore, 


324 


THE PIRATE. 


suggested, that the Halcyon should cruise betwixt 
Duncansbay Head and Cape Wrath, for two or three 
days, to relieve the pirates of the alarm her neigh- 
bourhood occasioned, and lull them into security, 
the more especially as the letter-writer knew it to 
be their intention, if the frigate left the coast, to go 
into Stromness Bay, and there put their guns ashore 
for some necessary repairs, or even for careening 
their vessel, if they could find means. The letter 
concluded by assuring Captain Weatherport, that, 
if he could bring his frigate into Stromness Bay on 
the morning of the 24th of August, he would have 
a good bargain of the pirates — if sooner, he was not 
unlikely to miss them. 

“ This letter is not of my writing or subscribing, 
Captain Weatherport,” said the Provost ; “ nor 
would I have ventured to advise any delay in your 
coming hither.” 

The Captain was surprised in his turn. " All I 
know is, that it reached me when I was in the bay 
of Thurso, and that I gave the boat’s crew that 
brought it five dollars for crossing the Pentland 
Frith in very rough weather. They had a dumb 
dwarf as cockswain, the ugliest urchin my eyes ever 
opened upon. I give you much credit for the ac- 
curacy of your intelligence, Mr. Provost.” 

It is lucky as it is,” • said the Provost ; ‘‘ yet I 
question whether the writer of this letter would not 
rather that you had found the nest cold and the 
bird flown.” 

So saying, he handed the letter to Magnus Troil, 
who returned it with a smile, but without any ob- 
servation, aware, doubtless, with the sagacious reader, 
that Horna had her own reasons for calculating 
with accuracy on the date of the Halcyon’s arrival. 


THD PIRATE. 


325 


Without puzzling himself farther concerning a 
circumstance which seemed inexplicable, the Cap- 
tain requested that the examinations might proceed ; 
and Cleveland and Altamont, as he chose to be called, 
were brought up the first of the pirate crew, on the 
charge of having acted as Captain and Lieutenant. 
They had just commenced the examination, when, 
after some expostulation with the officers who kept 
the door, Basil Mertoun burst into the apartment and 
exclaimed, “ Take the old victim for the young one ! 
— I am Basil Vaughan, too well known on the wind- 
ward station — take my life, and spare my son’s ! ” 

All were astonished, and none more than Magnus 
Troil, who hastily explained to the Magistrates and 
Captain Weatherport, that this gentleman had been 
living peaceably and honestly on the Mainland of 
Zetland for many years. 

‘‘ In that case,” said the Captain, I wash my 
hands of the poor man, for he is safe, under two 
proclamations of mercy ; and, by my soul, when I 
see them, the father and his offspring, hanging on 
each other’s neck, I wish I could say as much for 
the son.” 

“ But how is it — how can it be ? ” said the Pro- 
vost ; “ we always called the old man Mertoun, and 
the young, Cleveland, and now it seems they are 
both named Vaughan.” 

“ Vaughan,” answered Magnus, “ is a name which 
I have some reason to remember; and, from what 
I have lately heard from my cousin Norna, that old 
man has a right to bear it.” 

“And, I trust, the young man also,” said the 
Captain, who had been looking over a memorandum, 
“ Listen to me a moment,” added he, addressing 
the younger Vaughan, whom we have hitherto called 


326 


THE PIRATE. 


Cleveland. “Hark you, sir, your name is said to 
be Clement Vaughan — are you the same, who, then 
a mere boy, commanded a party of rovers, who, 
about eight or nine years ago, pillaged a Spanish 
village called Quempoa, on the Spanish Main, with 
the purpose of seizing some treasure ? ” 

“ It will avail me nothing to deny it,” answered 
the prisoner. 

“No,” said Captain Weatherport, “but it may 
do you service to admit it. — Well, the muleteers 
escaped with the treasure, while you were engaged 
in protecting, at the hazard of your own life, the 
honour of two Spanish ladies against the brutality 
of your followers. Do you remember any thing of 
this ? ” 

“ I am sure I do,” said Jack Bunce ; “ for our 
Captain here was marooned for his gallantry, and 
I narrowly escaped hogging and pickling for having 
taken his part.” 

“ When these points are established,” said Cap- 
tain Weatherport, “Vaughan’s life is safe — the 
women he saved were persons of quality, daughters 
to the governor of the province, and application was 
long since made, by the grateful Spaniard, to our 
government, for favour to be shown to their pre- 
server. I had special orders about Clement Vaughan, 
when I had a commission for cruizing upon the pi- 
rates, in the West Indies, six or seven years since. 
But Vaughan was gone then as a name amongst 
them ; and I heard enough of Cleveland in his room. 
However, Captain, be you Cleveland or Vaughan, 
I think that, as the Quempoa hero, I can assure you 
a free pardon when you arrive in London.” 

Cleveland bowed, and the blood mounted to his 
face. Mertoun fell on his knees, and exhausted 


THE PIEATE. 


327 


himself in thanksgiving to Heaven. They were 
removed, amidst the sympathizing sobs of the 
spectators. 

“ And now, good Master Lieutenant, what have 
you got to say for yourself ? ” said Captain Weather- 
port to the ci-devant Koscius. 

“ Why, little or nothing, please your honour ; 
only that I wish your honour could find my name 
in that book of mercy you have in your hand ; for 
I stood by Captain Clement Vaughan in thatQuem- 
poa business.” 

“ You call yourself Frederick Altamont ? ” said 
Captain Weatherport. “I can see no such name 
here ; one J ohn Bounce, or Bunce, the lady put on 
her tablets.” 

“ Why, that is me — that is I myself. Captain — 
I can prove it ; and I am determined, though the 
sound be something plebeian, rather to live Jack 
Bunce, than to hang as Frederick Altamont.” 

“ In that case,” said the Captain, “ I can give 
you some hopes as John Bunce.” 

“ Thank your noble worship ! ” shouted Bunce ; 
then changing his tone, he said, “ Ah, since an alias 
has such virtue, poor Dick Fletcher might have 
come off as Timothy Tugmutton ; but howsomdever, 
d’ye see, to use his own phrase ” 

“Away with the Lieutenant,” said the Captain, 
“ and bring forward Goffe and the other fellows ; 
there will be ropes reeved for some of them, I think.” 
And this prediction promised to be amply fulfilled, 
so strong was the proof which was brought against 
them. 

The Halcyon was accordingly ordered round to 
carry the whole prisoners to London, for which she 
set sail in the course of two days. 


328 


THE PIRATE. 


During the time that the unfortunate Cleveland 
remained at Kirkwall, he was treated with civility 
by the Captain of the Halcyon ; and the kindness 
of his old acquaintance, Magnus Troil, who knew 
in secret how closely he was allied to his blood, 
pressed on him accommodations of every kind, more 
than he could be prevailed on to accept. 

Korna, whose interest in the unhappy prisoner 
was still more deep, was at this time unable to ex- 
press it. The sexton had found her lying on the 
pavement in a swoon, and when she recovered, her 
mind for the time had totally lost its equipoise, and 
it became necessary to place her under the restraint 
of watchful attendants. 

Of the sisters of Burgh-Westra, Cleveland only 
heard that they remained ill, in consequence of the 
fright to which they had been subjected, until the 
evening before the Halcyon sailed, when he received, 
by a private conveyance, the following billet : 

— ^‘Farewell, Cleveland — we part for ever, and it 
is right that we should — Be virtuous and he happy. 
The delusions which a solitary education and limited 
acquaintance with the modern world had spread around 
me, are gone and dissipated for ever. But in you, I 
am sure, I have been thus far free from error — that 
you are one to whom good is naturally more attractive 
than evil, and whom only necessity, example, and habit, 
have forced into your late course of life. Think of me 
as one who no longer exists, unless you should become 
as much the object of general praise, as now of general 
reproach ; and then think of me as one who will rejoice 
in your reviving fame, though she must never see you 
more! — 

The note was signed M. T. ; and Cleveland, with 
a deep emotion, which he testified even by tears, 


THE pirate. 


329 

read it an hundred times over, and then clasped 
it to his bosom. , 

Mordaunt Mertoun heard by letter from his 
father, but in a very different style. Basil bade him 
farewell for ever, and acquitted him henceforward 
of the duties of a son, as one on whom he, notwith- 
standing the exertions of many years, had found 
himself unable to bestow the affections of a parent. 
The letter informed him of a recess in the old house 
of Jarlshof, in which the writer had deposited a con- 
siderable quantity of specie and of treasure, which 
he desired Mordaunt to use as his own. " You need 
not fear,” the letter bore, “ either that you lay your- 
self under obligation to me, or that you are sharing 
the spoils of piracy. What is now given over to 
you, is almost entirely the property of your deceased 
mother, Louisa Gonzago, and is yours by every 
right. Let us forgive each other,” was the conclu- 
sion, "‘as they who must meet no more.” — And 
they never met more ; for the elder Mertoun, against 
whom no charge was ever preferred, disappeared 
after the fate of Cleveland was determined, and was 
generally believed to have retired into a foreign 
convent. 

The fate of Cleveland will be most briefly ex- 
pressed in a letter which Minna received within 
two months after the Halcyon left Kirkwall. The 
family were then assembled at Burgh-Westra, and 
Mordaunt was a member of it for the time, the good 
Udaller thinking he could never sufficiently repay 
the activity which he had shown in the defence of 
his daughters. Korna, then beginning to recover 
from her temporary alienation of mind, was a guest 
in the family, and Minna, who was sedulous in her 
attention upon this unfortunate victim of mental de^ 


330 


THE PIRATE. 


lusion, was seated with her, watching each symptom 
of returning reason, when the letter we allude to 
was placed in her hands. 

' < Minna, ’ ’ it said — ‘ ‘ dearest Minna ! — farewell, 
and for ever! Believe me, I never meant you wrong 
— never. From the moment ,! came to know you, 
I resolved to detach myself from my hateful comrades, 
and had framed a thousand schemes, which have proved 
as vain as they deserved to be — for why, or how, 
should the fate of her that is so lovely, pure, and in- 
nocent, be involved with that of one so guilty? — Of 
these dreams I will speak no more. The stern reality 
of my situation is much milder than I either expected 
or deserved; and the little good I did has outweighed, 
in the minds of honourable and merciful judges, much 
that was evil and criminal. I have not only been ex- 
empted from the ignominious death to which several of 
my compeers are sentenced; but Captain Weatberport, 
about once more to sail for the Spanish Main, under the 
apprehension of an immediate war with that country, has 
generously solicited and obtained permission to employ 
me, and two or three more of my less guilty associates, 
in the same service — a measure recommended to him- 
self by his own generous compassion, and to others by 
our knowledge of the coast, and of local circumstances, 
which, by whatever means acquired, we now hope to 
use for the service of our country. Minna, you will 
hear my name pronounced with honour, or you will 
never hear it again. If virtue can give happiness, I 
need not wish it to you, for it is yours already. — 
Farewell, Minna. 

Minna wept so bitterly over this letter, that it 
attracted the attention of the convalescent Norna. 
She snatched it from the hand of her kinswoman, 
and read it over at first with the confused air of one 


THE PIRATE. 


331 


to whom it conveyed no intelligence — then with a 
dawn of recollection — then with a burst of mingled 
joy and grief, in which she dropped it from her 
hand. Minna snatched it up, and retired with her 
treasure to her own apartment. 

From that time Norna appeared to assume a dif- 
ferent character. Her dress was changed to one of 
a more simple and less imposing appearance. Her 
dwarf was dismissed, with ample provision for his 
future comfort. She showed no desire of resuming 
her erratic life ; and directed her observatory, as it 
might be called, on Fitful-head, to be dismantled. 
She refused the name of Norna, and would only be 
addressed by her real appellation of Ulla Troil. 
But the most important change remained behind. 
Formerly, from the dreadful dictates of spiritual 
despair, arising out of the circumstances of her 
father’s death, she seemed to have considered herself 
as an outcast from divine grace ; besides, that, en- 
veloped in the vain occult sciences which she pre- 
tended to practise, her study, like that of Chaucer’s 
physician, had been “ but little in the Bible.” Now, 
the sacred volume was seldom laid aside ; and, to the 
poor ignorant people who came as formerly to in- 
voke her power over the elements, she only replied 
— “ The winds are in the hollow of His hand** — 
Her conversion was not, perhaps, altogether rational ; 
for this, the state of a mind disordered by such a 
complication of horrid incidents, probably prevented. 
But it seemed to be sincere, and was certainly use- 
ful. She appeared deeply to repent of her former 
presumptuous attempts to interfere with the course 
of human events, superintended as they are by far 
higher powers, and expressed bitter compunction 
when such her former pretensions were in any 


332 


THE PIRATE. 


manner recalled to her memory. She still showed 
a partiality to Mordaunt, though, perhaps, arising 
chiefly from habit; nor was it easy to know how 
much or how little she remembered of the compli- 
cated events in which she had been connected. 
When she died, which was about four years after 
the events we have commemorated, it was found 
that, at the special and earnest request of Minna 
Troil, she had conveyed her very considerable prop- 
erty to Brenda. A clause in her will specially 
directed, that all the books, implements of her lab- 
oratory, and other things connected with her former 
studies, should be committed to the flames. 

About two years before Noma’s death, Brenda 
was wedded to Mordaunt Mertoun. It was some 
time before old Magnus Troil, with all his affection 
for his daughter, and all his partiality for Mordaunt, 
was able frankly to reconcile himself to this match. 
But Mordaunt’s accomplishments were peculiarly 
to the Udaller’s taste, and the old man felt the im- 
possibility of supplying his place in his family so 
absolutely, that at length his Norse blood gave way 
to the natural feeling of the heart, and he comforted 
his pride while he looked around him, and saw 
what he considered as the encroachments of the 
Scottish gentry upon the country, (so Zetland 
is fondly termed by its inhabitants,) that as well 
“ his daughter married the son of an English pirate, 
as of a Scottish thief,” in scornful allusion to the 
Highland and Border families, to whom Zetland 
owes many respectable landholders ; but whose an- 
cestors were generally esteemed more renowned for 
ancient family and high courage, than for accurately 
regarding the trifling distinctions of meum and 
tuum. The jovial old man lived to the extremity 


THE PIRATE. 


333 


of human life, with the happy prospect of a numer- 
ous succession in the family of his younger daugh- 
ter; and having his board cheered alternately by 
• the minstrelsy of Claud Halcro, and enlightened by 
the lucubrations of Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley, who, 
laying aside his high pretensions, was, when he 
became better acquainted with the manners of the 
islanders, and remembered the various misadven- 
tures which had attended his premature attempts 
at reformation, an honest and useful representative 
of his principal, and never so happy as when he 
could escape from the spare commons of his sister 
Barbara, to the genial table of the Udaller. Bar- 
bara’s temper also was much softened by the unex- 
pected restoration of the horn of silver coins, (the 
property of Norna,) which she had concealed in 
the mansion of old Stourburgh, for achieving some 
of her mysterious plans, but which she now restored 
to those by whom it had been accidentally discov- 
ered, with an intimation, however, that it would 
again disappear unless a reasonable portion was 
expended on the sustenance of the family, a pre- 
caution to which Tronda Dronsdaughter (probably 
an agent of Norna’s) owed her escape from a slow and 
wasting death by inanition. 

Mordaunt and Brenda were as happy as our mor- 
tal condition permits us to be. They admired and 
loved each other — enjoyed easy circumstances — 
had duties to discharge which they did not neglect ; 
and, clear in conscience as light of heart, laughed, 
sung, danced, daffed the world aside, and bid it pass. 

But Minna — the high-minded and imaginative 
Minna — she, gifted with such depth of feeling and 
enthusiasm, yet doomed to see both blighted in early 
youth, because, with the inexperience of a disposi- 


334 


THE PIRATE. 


tion equally romantic and ignorant, she had built 
the fabric of her happiness on a quicksand instead 
of a rock, — was she, could she be happy ? Reader, 
she was happy , for, whatever may be alleged to the 
contrary by the sceptic and the scorner, to each 
duty performed there is assigned a degree of mental 
peace and high consciousness of honourable exer- 
tion, corresponding to the difficulty of the task ac- 
complished. That rest of the body which succeeds 
to hard and industrious toil, is not to be compared 
to the repose which the spirit enjoys under similar 
circumstances. Her resignation, however, and the 
constant attention which she paid to her father, her 
sister, the afflicted Norna, and to all who had claims 
on her, were neither Minna’s sole nor her most 
precious source of comfort. Like Norna, but under 
a more regulated judgment, she learned to exchange 
the visions of wild enthusiasm which had exerted 
and misled her imagination, for a truer and purer 
connexion with the world beyond us, than could 
be learned from the sagas of heathen bards, or the 
visions of later rhymers. To this she owed the 
support by which she was enabled, after various 
accounts of the honourable and gallant conduct of 
Cleveland, to read with resignation, and even with 
a sense of comfort, mingled with sorrow, that he 
had at length fallen, leading the way in a gallant 
and honourable enterprise, which was successfully 
accomplished by those companions, to whom his 
determined bravery had opened the road. Bunce, 
his fantastic follower in good, as formerly in evil, 
transmitted an account to Minna of this melancholy 
event, in terms which showed, that though his head 
was weak, his heart had not been utterly corrupted 
by the lawless life which he had for some time led. 


THE PIRATE. 


335 


or at least that it had been amended by the change j 
and that he himself had gained credit and promo- 
tion in the same action, seemed to be of little con- 
sequence to him, compared with the loss of his old 
captain and comrade.^ Minna read the intelligence, 
and thanked Heaven, even while the eyes which 
she lifted up were streaming with tears, that the 
death of Cleveland had been in the bed of honour ; 
nay, she even had the courage to add her gratitude, 
that he had been snatched from a situation of temp- 
tation ere circumstances had overcome his new-born 
virtue ; and so strongly did this reflection operate, 
that her life, after the immediate pain of this event 
had passed away, seemed not only as resigned, but 
even more cheerful than before. Her thoughts, 
however, were detached from the world, and only 
visited it, with an interest like that which guardian 
spirits take for their charge, in behalf of those 
friends with whom she lived in love, or of the poor 
whom she could serve and comfort. Thus passed 
her life, enjoying from all who approached her, an 
affection enhanced by reverence ; insomuch, that 
when her friends sorrowed for her death, which ar- 
rived at a late period of her existence, they were 
comforted by the fond reflection, that the humanity 
which she then laid down, was the only circum- 
stance which had placed her, in the words of Scrip- 
ture, “ a little lower than the angels ! ” 

1 We have been able to learn nothing with certainty of Bunco’s 
fate ; but our friend, Dr Dryasdust, believes he may be identified 
with an old gentleman, who, in the beginning of the reign of 
George T., attended the Rose Coffee-house regularly, went to the 
theatre every night, told mercilessly long stories about the Spanish 
Main, controlled reckonings, bullied waiters, and was generally 
known by the name of Captain Bounce. 



AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


Note I., p. 17. — Fortune-telling Rhymes. 

The author has in Chapter I. supposed that a very ancient 
northern custom, used by those who were accounted sooth- 
saying women, might have survived, though in jest rather than 
earnest, among the Zetlanders, their descendants. The fol- 
lowing original account of such a scene will show the ancient 
importance and consequence of such a prophetic character as 
was assumed by Norna : — 

“ There lived in the same territory (Greenland) a woman 
named Thorbiorga, who was a prophetess, and called the little 
Vola, (or fatal sister,) the only one of nine sisters who survived. 
Thorbiorga during the winter used to frequent the festivities of 
the season, invited by those who were desirous of learning their 
own fortune, and the future events which impended. Torquil 
being a man of consequence in the country, it fell to his lot to 
enquire how long the dearth was to endure with which the 
country was then afflicted ; he therefore invited the prophetess 
to his house, having made liberal preparation, as was the custom, 
for receiving a guest of such consequence. The seat of the 
soothsayer was placed in an eminent situation, and covered 
with pillows filled with the softest eider down. In the evening 
she arrived, together with a person who had been sent to meet 
her, and show her the way to TorquiPs habitation. She was at- 
tired as follows : She had a sky-blue tunick, having the front 
ornamented with gems from the top to the bottom, and wore 
around her throat a necklace of glass beads. ^ Her head-gear 
was of black lambskin, the lining being the fur of a white wild- 
cat. She leant on a staff, having a ball at the top. ^ The staff 

1 We may .suppose the heads to have been of the potent adderstone, to 
which so many virtues were ascribed. 

3 Like those anciently borne by porters at the gates of distinguished 
persons, as a badge of office. 

VOL. II. — 22 


338 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


was ornamented with brass, and the ball or globe with gems or 
pebbles. She wore a Hunland (or Hungarian) girdle, to which 
was attached a large pouch, in which she kept her magical im- 
plements. Her shoes wei e of sealskin, dressed with the hair 
outside, and secured by long and thick straps,' fastened by brazen 
clasps. She wore gloves of the wild-cat’s skin, with the fur 
inmost. As this venerable person entered the hall, all saluted 
her with due respect; but she only returned the compliments of 
such as were agreeable to her. Torquil conducted her with 
reverence to the seat prepared for her, and requested she would 
purify the apartment and company assembled, by casting her 
eyes over them. She was by no means sparing of her words. 
The table being at length covered, such viands were placed 
before Thorbiorga as suited her character of a soothsayer. 
These were, a preparation of goat’s milk, and a mess com- 
posed of the hearts of various animals ; the prophetess made 
use of a brazen spoon, and a pointless knife, the handle of 
which was composed of a whale’s tooth, and ornamented with 
two rings of brass. The table being removed, Torquil addressed 
Thorbiorga, requesting her opinion of his house and guests, at 
the same time intimating the subjects on which he and the 
company were desirous to consult her. 

“ Thorbiorga replied, it was impossible for her to answer their 
enquiries until she had slept a night under his roof. The next 
morning, therefore, the magical apparatus necessary for her pur- 
pose was prepared, and she then enquired, as a necessary part of 
the ceremony, whether there was any female present who could 
sing a magical song called ‘ Vardlokur* When no songstress 
such as she desired could be found, Gudrida, the daughter of 
Torquil, replied, ‘ I am no sorceress or soothsayer ; but my nurse, 
Haldisa, taught me, when in Iceland, a song called Vardlokur* 
— ‘ Then thou knowest more than I was aware of,’ said Torquil. 
‘ But as I am a Christian,’ continued Gudrida, ‘ 1 consider these 
rites as matters which it is unlawful to promote, and the song 
itself as unlawful.’ — ‘ Nevertheless,’ answered the soothsayer, 
‘ thou mayst help us in this matter without any harm to thy 
religion, since the task will remain with Torquil to provide 
every thing necessary for the present purpose.' Torquil also 
earnestly entreated Gudrida, till she consented to grant his 
request. The females then surrounded Thorbiorga, who took 
her place on a sort of elevated stage ; Gudrida then sung the 
magic song, with a voice so sweet and tuneful, as to excel any 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


339 


thing that had been heard by any present. The soothsayer, 
delighted with the melody, returned thanks to the singer, and 
then said, ‘ Much I have now learned of dearth and disease 
approaching the country, and many things are now clear to 
me which before were hidden as well from me as others. Our 
present dearth of substance shall not long endure for the pres- 
ent, and plenty will in the spring succeed to scarcity. The 
contagious diseases also, with which the country has been for 
some time afflicted, will in a short time take their departure. 
To thee, Gudrida, I can, in recompense for thy assistance on this 
occasion, announce a fortune of higher import than any one 
could have conjectured. You shall be married to a man of 
name here in Greenland ; but you shall not long enjoy that 
union, for your fate recalls you to Iceland, where you shall 
become the mother of a numerous and honourable family, which 
shall be enlightened by a luminous ray of good fortune. So, 
my daughter, wishing thee health, I bid thee farewell.’ The 
prophetess, having afterwards given answers to all queries 
which were put to her, either by Torquil or his guests, de- 
parted to show her skill at another festival, to which she had 
been invited for that purpose. But all which she had presaged, 
either concerning the public or individuals, came truly to pass.” 

The above narrative is taken from the Saga of Erick Randa, 
as quoted by the learned Bartholine in his curious work. He 
mentions similar instances, particularly of one Heida, celebrated 
for her predictions, who attended festivals for the purpose, as a 
modern Scotsman might say, of spacing fortunes, with a gallant 
tail, or retinue, of thirty male and fifteen female attendants, — 
See De Causis Gontemptue a Danis adhuc gentilibus Mortis^ lib. 
III., cap. 4. 


Note II., p. 32. — Promise op Odin. 

Although the Father of Scandinavian mythology has been 
as a deity long forgotten in the archipelago, which was once a 
very small part of his realm, yet even at this day his name con- 
tinues to be occasionally attested as security for a promise. 

It is curious to observe, that the rites with which such attes- 
tations are still made in Orkney, correspond to those of the 
ancient Northmen. It appears from several authorities, that in 
the Norse ritual, when an oath was imposed, he by whom it 
was pledged, passed his hand, while pronouncing it, through a 


340 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


massive ring of silver kept for that purpose.^ In like manner, 
two persons, generally lovers, desirous to take the promise of 
Odin, which they considered as peculiarly binding, joined hands 
through a circular hole in a sacrificial stone, which lies in the 
Orcadian Stonehenge, called the Circle of Stennis, of which we 
shall speak more hereafter. The ceremony is now confined to 
the troth-plighting of the lower classes, but at an earlier period 
may be supposed to have influenced a character like Minna in 
the higher ranks. 

Note III., p. 101.— The Pictish Burgh. 

The Pictish Burgh, a fort which Norna is supposed to have 
converted into her dwelling-house, has been fully described in 
the Notes upon Ivanhoe, vol. xvii. p. 352, of this edition. An 
account of the celebrated Castle of Mousa is there given, to 
afford an opportunity of comparing it with the Saxon Castle of 
Coningsburgh. It should, however, have been mentioned, that 
the Castle of Mousa underwent considerable repairs at a com- 
paratively recent period. Accordingly, Torfseus assures us, that 
even this ancient pigeon-house, composed of dry stones, was 
fortification enough, not indeed to hold out a ten years’ siege, 
like Troy in similar circumstances, but to wear out the patience 
of the besiegers. Erland, the son of Harold the Fair-spoken, 
had carried off a beautiful woman, the mother of a Norwegian 
earl, also called Harold, and sheltered himself with his fair 
prize in the Castle of Mousa. Earl Harold followed with an 
army, and, finding the place too strong for assault, endeavoured 
to reduce it by famine ; but such w’^as the length of the siege, 
that the offended Earl found it necessary to listen to a treaty of 
accommodation, and agreed that his mother’s honour should be 
restored by marriage. This transaction took place in the be- 
ginning of the thirteenth century, in the reign of William the 
Lion of Scotland. “ It is probable that the improvements 
adopted by Erland on this occasion, were those which finished 
the parapet of the castle, by making it project outwards, so that 
the tower of Mousa rather resembles the figure of a dice-box, 
whereas others of the same kind have the form of a truncated 
cone. It is easy to see how the projection of the highest par. 
apet would render the defence more easy and effectual. 

1 See the Eyrbiggia Saga. 

2 See Torfaei Orcadus, p. 131. 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


341 


Note IV., p. 143. — Antique Coins found in Zetland. 

While these sheets were passing through the press, I received 
a letter from an honourable and learned friend, containing 
the following passage, relating to a discovery in Zetland : — 
“ Within a few weeks, the workmen taking up the foundation 
of an old wall, came on a hearth-stone, under which they found 
a horn, surrounded with massive silver rings, like bracelets, and 
filled with coins of the Heptarchy, in perfect preservation. 
The place of finding is within a very short distance of the 
[supposed] residence of Norna of the Fitful-head.” — Thus one 
of the very improbable fictions of the tale is verified by a sin- 
gular coincidence. 

Note Y., p, 197. — Character of Norna. 

The character of Norna is meant to be an instance of that 
singular kind of insanity, during which the patient, while she 
or he retains much subtlety and address for the power of im- 
posing upon others, is still more ingenious in endeavouring to 
impose upon themselves. Indeed, maniacs of this kind may be 
often observed to possess a sort of double character, in one of 
which they are the being whom their distempered imagination 
shapes out, and in the other, their own natural self, as seen to 
exist by other people. This species of double consciousness 
makes wild work with the patient’s imagination, and, judi- 
ciously used, is perhaps a frequent means of restoring sanity of 
intellect. Exterior circumstances striking the senses, often 
have a powerful effect in undermining or battering the airy 
castles which the disorder has excited. 

A late medical gentleman, my particular friend, told me the 
case of a lunatic patient confined in the Edinburgh Infirmary. 
He was so far happy that his mental alienation was of a gay and 
pleasant character, giving a kind of joyous explanation to all 
that came in contact with him. He considered the large house, 
numerous servants, &c., of the hospital, as all matters of state 
and consequence belonging to his own personal establishment, 
and had no doubt of his own wealth and grandeur. One thing 
alone puzzled this man of wealth. Although he was provided 
with a first-rate cook and proper assistants, although his table 
was regularly supplied with every delicacy of the season, yet 


342 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


he confessed to my friend, that by some uncommon depravity 
of the palate, every thing which he ate tasted of 'porridge. This 
peculiarity, of course, arose from the poor man being fed upon 
nothing else, and because his stomach was not so easily deceived 
as his other senses. 

Note VI., p. 199. — Birds op Prey. 

So favourable a retreat does the island of Hoy afford for birds 
of prey, that instances of their ravages, which seldom occur in 
other parts of the country, are not unusual there. An indi- 
vidual was living in Orkney not long since, whom, while a child 
in its swaddling clothes, an eagle actually transported to its nest 
in the hill of Hoy. Happily the eyry being known, and the 
bird instantly pursued, the child was found uninjured, playing 
with the young eagles. A story of a more ludicrous transpor- 
tation was told me by the reverend clergyman who is minister 
of the island. Hearing one day a strange grunting, he sus- 
pected his servants had permitted a sow and pigs, which were 
tenants of his farm-yard, to get among his barley crop. Having 
in vain ^looked for the transgressors upon solid earth, he at 
length cast his eyes upward, when he discovered one of the 
litter in the talons of a large eagle, which was soaring away 
with the unfortunate pig (squeaking all the while with terror) 
towards her nest in the crest of Hoy. 


Note VII., p. 280. — The Standing Stones op Stennis. 

The Standing Stones of Stennis, as by a little pleonasm this 
remarkable monument is termed, furnishes an irresistible refu- 
tation of the opinion of such antiquaries as hold that the circles 
usually called Druidical, were peculiar to that race of priests. 
There is every reason to believe, that the custom was as preva- 
lent in Scandinavia as in Gaul or Britain, and as common to 
the mythology of Odin as to Druidical superstition. There is 
even reason to think, that the Druids never occupied any part 
of the Orkneys, and tradition, as well as history, ascribes the 
Stones of Stennis to the Scandinavians. Two large sheets of 
water, communicating with the sea, are connected by a cause- 
way, with openings permitting the tide to rise and recede, which 
is called the Bridge of Broisgar. Upon the eastern tongue of 
land appear the Standing Stones, arranged in the form of a half 


AUTHOR’S NOTES. 


343 


circle, or rather a horse-shoe, the height of the pillars being 
fifteen feet and upwards. Within this circle lies a stone, pro- 
bably sacrificial. One of the pillars, a little to the westward, 
is perforated with a circular hole, through which loving couples 
are wont to join hands when they take the Promise of Odin, as 
has been repeatedly mentioned in the text. The enclosure is 
surrounded by barrows, and on the opposite isthmus, advancing 
towards the Bridge of Broisgar, there is another monument 
of Standing Stones, which, in this case, is completely circular. 
They are less in size than those on the eastern side of the lake, 
their height running only from ten or twelve to fourteen feet. 
This western circle is surrounded by a deep trench drawn on 
the outside of the pillars ; and I remarked four tumuli, or 
mounds of earth, regularly disposed around it. Stonehenge 
excels this Orcadian monument ; but that of Stennis is, I con- 
ceive, the only one in Britain which can be said to approach it 
in consequence. All the northern nations marked by those 
huge enclosures the places of popular meeting, either for reli- 
gious worship or the transaction of public business of a temporal 
nature. The Northern Popular A ntiquities contain, iy an ab- 
stract of the Eyrbiggia Saga, a particular account of the man- 
ner in which the Helga Fels, or Holy Rock, was set apart by the 
Pontiff Thorolf for solemn occasions. 

I need only add, that, different from the monument on Salis- 
bury Plain, the stones which were used in the Orcadian circle 
seem to have been raised from a quarry upon the spot, of which 
the marks are visible. 


'■■■ ' , : -kj^y , , . ■ ^ 

irir u, .,n,f : vm;?. • ,/. 

;:,.i j.. ■.,.H*:,n. ■ 

.M.'),.y fflU 

V>JV..] i! .. iv- < -i ,ii'u... u . , .i.i:,* i,,;,,. .j,!... .j 

''■■ ■ ^ ' ^■•■‘ ' " ' • • ■» ' i Wf.-ir . ix 

.• ’ -< M. . -.r r J. -i r.s'iln M / 

.t, .,p„. . J , ., j-, 

lr«.- ■ ,. I,{--, .;jt*..fAaf .. •.. .^ :., -.0 

AMiiy., , ,..,N (7 rtv , j.;, 

i,; t,< *v 7 ,-, ;yr 

t •-. •, • ; i. iiA;;-M.V;.-fl •»■• rli 

. M- , . 'T. ,r,»,i I ,j i.,!, ( ).,4 ,.,,, -ji; , :. 

■ .», 1 . Jii ••-•„„ Hi. 

'>•■''• ’■^' '■ ■ " '■ *'■> v'i^Mi ^^■J '..Ai.. 

M<"y , ''■,tj>.. i'.,:.K 

■t;,;/ ' ' ■ ..■■ .I 

•.MutfX'.. !,<.,. .t, , ,„r ,ui.i „,.r, ..'Htt,; . 

>-{:rd-» A/Ifjuiv.' ' .Wf ,!? ,', vr f,.,-.. , ::a.„ .-i 

•S , . . f. ., f. ,./*// ..,,/M . , <l/rt -rt, 

vr , „/ • 


Tl. 


• ' .1 . I 

‘ ».,<'. v'T 

.. •, ' ft ., . V >. 


aiv- 

v',-:/,'t ; ♦ 








'•■' r'i(j(/ n' i| 


EDITOK’S NOTES. 


(а) p. 17. Norna’u soothsaying. The passage quoted by 
Scott from the Saga of Eric the Red may be read in its con- 
text in Vinland the Good,” edited by Mr. Reeves, and pub- 
lished by the Clarendon Press. Eric was the discoverer ot 
Greenland, and father of Leif the Lucky, who found Vinland 
(New England, or Nova Scotia?) about the year 1002. Leif 
has a statue in Boston, Massachusetts. 

(б) p. 35. Islands “ supposed to be haunted.” In De 
Quincey’s autobiographical essay his sailor brother, Pink, de- 
scribes the terrors of those isles. One of them, the noise of a 
Midnight Axe, is also found in Ceylon, in Mexico, and else- 
where. The Editor may be permitted to refer to the legends 
collected in his “ Custom and Myth.” 

(c) p. 47, Cleveland’s song. Lockhart says that Scott, in 
his later years, heard this song sung, and said, “ ‘ Capital words! 
Whose are they 1 Byron’s, I suppose, but I don’t remember 
them.’ He was astonished when I told him that they were his 
own in ‘ The Pirate.’ He seemed pleased at the moment, but 
said next minute, ‘You have distressed me — if memory goes 
all is up with me, for that was always my strong point.’ ” 
This was in 1828. Mrs. Arkwright was the daughter ot 
Stephen Kemble. She set “ Hohenlinden.” 

(d) p. 86. “ Auld Robin Gray.” In the Abbotsford MSS. 

is a long correspondence between Lady Ann Lindsay and 
Scott. She had known him as a child. There was a project 
of editing all her poems, but perhaps her own modesty, per- 
haps the quality of the work, caused this to be dropped, and 
Scott only edited the ballad, with a letter of the lady’s. T'his 
small quarto sells for some £5 when it comes into the market. 
It has a frontispiece by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and is 
apparently the only book of Scott’s which is valued as a rarity 
by bibliomaniacs. 

(e) p. 255. “ John was a Jacobite.” In the library of a 

country house in the south of England is a copy of Dryden’s 
Miscellany Poems, with a laudatory autograph envoy to Judge 
Jeffreys, a sufficiently thoroughgoing King’s man. 

Andrew Lang* 


August 1893. 


< f 


I' 

V 


.jia'i'i 




'• r 


. ♦ > 


. Kfj. 


■(■■.’ .w* r.i i 


Ir, 

l' .fiM.’;/ .• ' 


v-tff-.rfr V 

■ >■ I'* •';',!’ 1 ). • 


I i .-0 
; II • 


•'.i- 


♦M' i 



> / . r 

*" i { •!» < fij .. u .f, 

) V* • iT i » * , ' 






K'.l ..? !',(v'N)(:f,i( . j td I _,‘ ,;./i,', • ;,K,/ ; 

■ * ! i / M, 


.> i ' V 
... ,if 


Ai 


M/i 


/f 


MI ;t -'m-. 

• ‘ * • i-.» , -1 .0 Vvj '"f.' : , t; .. :'fcfi 

i'.f uMi,, ,u>ii/ 

•til .>-1 I ‘ til «>' I }■> , •..l' i I;'. ( . . ,,j ,f 

. ;vr<r^ i.. ■ 


r • ■ . t 


^ ^ _ ..iVTii . . [.r .f-.,. .r> " ,j ^ 

' '■ ' / (»•"■< ■* !' I-' '» ■ 

I .(/; ■ i M ,^7 1 

rt'W 7/. - . I f vJnfl «M' ' .- Hi-fi .. 


- • ' .1 . » » I 


‘•i V . . . 




rf • .*1 i 


• i^‘ V(. • . • 


J i.1. ' . • " * 

la Nif* •■• * ' ; .* i ■ 

; •■ ■ ■• 

: ;,• ,, \ ,,I.. 

huf'f . ' . 1 , r-. f . , 

y< >'■••> 


‘ ■ •-, .1' < t 

./ Ilf.i'l '1,.^ 


i‘V .'1 ! 


» » 


.4. /# 


» i r»ii- 
■' iU 


j. //. i' 


. i‘|V 


■-. /</ f ' h' ^ 




• 


■ :.i • 


I V ’ t ».I M , 

^ ' 

i ‘ 1 1 *** • 


vi. 

vJ.r*. ( „ 

4 . ivwu.ijj ‘ 4 (ir> - itijvV, 

4 n f ^.,d- , , - ..l./j,. ■ •*.' 

. . .4.. ...4, . , .,rt, r^ .,.x) 


-••■ J 


j‘(-, * 


;.r ••• ■ ■ 1 .U',-;.),),, .•.,|„V.I , . . ,,;,-,i. , .,,1 ,J 

■ -ai , I. ,, i.|«.»r.,v,a , ,i 

»< i j:ioii<0r(j iu 




<■ .I-.- . iAtfUt ^. 1 ,,r ' 

' k. V fv. ,4 f.i S-M.-u:;! I,, f(v 

,'w'. vi •■i-nt ,, , .. 


I .U 


'/.^ «C (’4) 


i . '» ‘r^ » .1 rtillfU .•/ 

M . -jO'' 


I ff ,■• ' 






•^ V 




•tU 


Ir; 


l \; i ;** 


. V 




GLOSSARY, 


A’, all. 

Aboon, above. 

Ae, one. 

Ain, own. 

Aits, oats. 

Anes, once. 

A’thegither, altoo-etber. 

Aught, owned. 

Auld, old. 

Awa, away. 

Bailie, a magistrate. 

Baittle, denoting that sort of 
pasture where the grass is 
short, close, and rich. 

Bang, a blow. 

Bear, a kind of barley. 

Bee — “to have a bee in one’s 
bonnet,” to be harebrained. 
Bern, bairn, a child. 

Bicker, a wooden dish. 

Bide, to await, to endure. 
Biggin, a building. 

Bilboes, irons. 

Bismar, a small steelyard. 

Bland, a drink made from but- 
ter-milk. 

Blithe, glad. 

Blude, Wood. 

Bodle, a small coin equal to one 
sixth of a penny sterling. 

Bole, a small aperture. 
Bonny-die, a toy, a trinket. 
Boobie, a dunce. 

Bowie, a wooden dish for milk 
Brae, a hill. 

Braw, fine, pretty. 

Buckie, a whiik. 

Bumming, making a humming 
noise. 


Ca*, to call. 

Canny, good, worthy ; safe. 

Cannily, gently. 

Capa, a Spanish mantle. 

Caper, a Dutch privateer of the 
seventeenth century. 

Carle, a churl ; also, a farm ser- 
vant. 

Carhne, a witch. 

Cart-avers, cart-horses. 

Chapman, a small merchant or 
pedlar, 

“ Clashes and clavers,” scandal 
and nonsense. 

Clink, to drop. 

Cowp, to upset. 

Craig, the neck ; also, a rock. 

Cummer, a gossip. 


Daft, crazy. 

“ Deaf nuts,” nuts whose kernels 
are decayed. 

Deil, the devil. 

Dibble, to plant. 

Dinna, do not. 

“Dinna, downa, bide,” cannot 
bear. 

Divot, thin turf used for roofing 
cottages. 

Douce, sedate, modest. 

Dowie, dark, melancholy. 

“ Dowse the ghm,” put out the 
light. 

Dree, to endure. 

Duds, clothes. 

Dulse, a species of sea- weed. 
Dune, done. 

Dung, knocked. 

Dunt, to knock. 


348 


GLOSSARY. 


Een, eyes. 
Eneugh, enough. 
Eviting, avoiding. 


Fash, fashery, trouble. 

Fear’d, afraid. 

Feck, the greatest part. 

Ferly, VYonderful. 

“ Fey folk,” fated or unfortu- 
nate folk. 

“Floatsome and jetsome,” ar- 
ticles floated or cast away on 
the sea. 

Forby, besides. 

Forgie, to forgive. 

Fowd, the chief judge or magis- 
trate. 

Frae, from. 

Fule, a fool. 

“ Funking and flinging,” the 
act of dancing. 


Gae, go. 

Galdragon, a sorceress. 
Gane, gone. 

Gate, way, direction. 

Gar, to oblige, to force. 
Gear, property. 

Ghaist, a ghost. 

Gob-box, the mouth. 
Gowd, gold. 

Gowk, a fool. 

Gude, God, good. 

Gue, a two-stringed violin. 
Guide, to take care of. 


Haaf, deep-sea fishing. 

Hae, have. 

Haena, have not. 

Haill, whole. 

Hank, to fasten. 

Hellicat, lightheaded, extrava- 
gant, wicked. ^ 

Hialtland, the old name for Shet- 
land. 

Hirple, to halt, to limp. 

Howf, a haunt, a haven. 

Hurley-house, a term applied to 
a large house that is so much 


in disrepair as to be nearly in 
a ruinous state 


“Infang and outfang thief,” 
the right of trying thieves. 


Jagger, a pedlar. 
Jarto, my dear. 
Jokul, yes, sir. 
Joul, Yule. 


Kailyard, a cabbage garden. 
Kempies, Norse champions. 
Ken, to know. 

Kend, well-known. 

Kenna, know not. 

Kist, a chest. 

Kittle, difficult, ticklish. 


Lampits, limpets. 

Landlouper, a vagabond. 

Lave, the rest. 

Leddy, a lady. 

Lispund, the fifteenth part of a 
barrel, a weight in Orkney and 
Shetland. 

List, to wish, to choose. 

Lowe, a flame. 

Lug, the ear. 


Main, to moan. 

Mair, more. 

Malapert, impertinent. 

Mallard, the wild-duck. 
Marooned, abandoned on a des- 
ert island. 

Masking-fat, a mashing vat. 
Maun, must. 

Meams, Kincardine.shire. 

Meed, reward. 

Menseful, modest, discreet. 
Merk, an ancient Scottish silver 
coin = 13 ^y/. 

Mickle, much, big. 

Mind, to remember. 

Mony, many. 

Muckle, much, big. 


GLOSSARY. 


349 


jJTa, nae, no, not. 
Neist, next. 

Nixie, a water-fairy. 

Ony, any. 

Orra, odd. 

Ower, over. 
Owerlay, a cravat. 


Peery, sharp-looking, disposed 
to examine narrowly. 

Pixie, a fairy. 

Plough, a plough. 

Puir, poor. 

Pye-holes, eye-holes. 


Banzelman, a constable. 

Rape, a rope. 

Reimkennar, one who knows 
mystic rhyme. 

“ Roose the ford,” judge of the 
ford. 


Sae, so. 

Sain, to bless. 

Sair, sore. 

Saunt, a saint. 

Scald, a bard or minstrel. 

Scat, a land-tax paid totheCrown. 
“Sclate stane,” slate stone. 
Scowries, young sea-gulls. 
Sealgh, sealchie, a seal. 

Shogh! (Gaelic), there ! 

Sic, siccan, such. 

Siller, money. 

Sillocks, the fry of the coal fish. 
Skelping, galloping. 

Skeoe, astoue hut for drying fish. 
Skeps, straw hives. 

Skerry, a flat insulated rock. 
Skirl, to scream. 

Slade, slid. 

Sombrero, a large straw hat 
worn by Spaniards. 

Somer, one who lives upon his 
friends. 

Spae-women, fortune-tellers. 
Spaed, foretold. 


Speer, to ask, to inquire. 
Speerings, inquiries. 

Spring, a dance tune. 

Stack, an insulated precipitous 
rock. 

Staig, a young horse. 

Suld, should. 

Swatter, to swim quickly and 
awkwardly. 

Swap, to exchange. 

Swelchies, whirlpools. 

Syne, since, ago. 


Taen, taken. 

“ Taits of woo’,” locks of wool. 
Tauld, told. 

Thae, these, those. 

Thairm, catgut. 

Tint, lost. 

Trow or Drow, a spirit or elf 
believed in by the Norse. 

Ugsome, frightful. 

Umquhile, the late. 

very, strange, great, par 
ticularly. 

“ Unco wark,” a great ado. 


Vifda, beef dried without salt. 
Vivers, victuals. 

Voe, an inlet of the sea. 


Wa*, a wall. 

Wad, would. 

Wadmaal, homespun woollen 
cloth. 

Waft, the woof in a web. 
Warlock, a wizard. 

Wasna, was not. 

Wat, wet. 

Wattle, an assessment for the 
salary of the magistrate. 
Wawl, to look wildly. 

Waws, waves. 

Weal, Avell. 

Wearifu’, causing pain oi 
trouble. 

Weird, fate, destiny. 


350 


GLOSSAKY. 


Wha, who. 

“ What for.” why. 
Whilk, which. 
Whomled, turned over. 
Wi’, with. 

Wittols, cuckolds. 

** Win by,” to escape. 


Wot, to know. 
Wrang, wrong. 


Yarfa, yarpha, peat full of fibres 
and roots ; land. 

Yelloched, screeched or yelled. 


THfi END. 




* , • u ■*’ A -^ av ''*St»lH 

>•*■''■ -4|^niB -/‘ ^ ’ ■' ' ■ 




V, < 




t • 





-A 


» 

• . t* ^ 



rr’%.r • 



-; w,- 

r k* 


> I -1 

r' 



iV.’- 


. 7. 

‘s ' \t .'.‘ ■B" 


' ^ y ■ 'r • \**\ ‘r, ' , A . %i5 w*’ V j ^ ' ■/* 

V. < ''^ jVlOl> 

% / ■ ■ '. '- ' - ■■ > V < .-A^M 

. '■ - H:;- .^■;^-r. ^,i 


■h •- , ".' 


r. 


r. 


•« , 


«•' ♦ 

v» 



N'C- V- 
• . . , * * » • 




; 




t »s 


• / / 


>S . • 


, .» 


* C' % ' 


^ 

• *, 


,^\:;''‘^cV;vv• ^ 



V" 1 




;xv Si 


I » 


. f 


*7 '■.. 



« i 







» » * ’ , .* 

i’ . ^ 

S^vu,‘-Y 

' • r •' 


< ■ ^ 

"S V^' 

1 

, * ■ 

‘ •'■*: 

‘ 



, * » 

' • * 

■ .: r ':?A- 

« 


I * 

(k 



. I 


“SM 


■ ■ !>‘V'%'; 



■-, - 


*«> f 


^ , • p wi. - 






/ 




\)1 » 


'■■''■ -•'¥^5?fe«7L ■ 

•"■' ■ '■> v ;j 

'^7 


J EUt 


’■■ 1- 



■ 'K- -J vi;'>f-v-{ . -'sa 


-r -tj 

M " ' ' 'T 







*: f 


A y < 

•/ • * 


^ i -‘ff, • ' • 

..'- >,r . « .• 4 V. .. 

' S' ..%~ . 

M* .T. y. J 

••-* I ^ . f 


"■' 7'.’ ^ ' -■• .^' • '- t 

‘ .‘C ‘' ' ^ .<. " •• s’lxearii 




vV 


w I 


« ;.•. V 

v:- •• 

k 


' 


• W 7''. , , . 


- -V 


« k 


'•» » ■ 

:.” •> 


■% 


^ 9\ 


’ • ' ! ' i * •’ * 

* . 'i ' J * ‘ ■ * /: 

k LV . " / , 

'* , ^ . 


- ‘ ‘ ••'■ ,i«|A 

v: j 


\ ' i • -'■ *■'- 

:r-<. ..Av'A^ 

' * .iv* *• ', . 




:V . 


r 

' * V 

1' . 

, I 


■ A 




sik'i • 


« ». 




n.'* » 




iA 









.. A. 


t. s. 


’ ^ ,. 
V «. •» 


» ‘i» 


« : 

A 


. ' * ^ '. . .j. . ' 71^,1^'' 


'j\ . ,* '■ -^ '* 


•• •- 

.'AT ^ 


* - / 


f-k 


. ✓ 


•iC > 







kC*- 


■* '<. M . *,'i\ 

i »fi^’ ' ' ^ ‘ 

■ «,r...W 'i •■ • ; • * 

. • . i I .i 


\ , 


V •\* . -Ta * ' " ‘ < 

>r 

■ -.? .. i’' 


. . A' 


, \ 

V V 



* -^ ' ■ 1 

. • V H 

! -■ , » *••'■» 

• • ' -^y. » t* ■' » ' 

ivr 

V'* VV. , 

I •^■ 



- » 


4 V 
•- * 


^ » 


f 


i . • 


t’.^ ,• V 


■'h 




,• I 


< k 


-k.Vl * 


■’ •'.‘.'iVf . '. ■ 

*. . 1 w,v .'■ ,. ■.' 

.. *V ’- .i. 



,• j 

I 

\* 


y. 


t,. 


,- ^ ... ■* ■ ,‘ ,' •■ 
4- * • ;‘^ r Ai •'^r y ■ * ■ * ‘i 

^ ' '■ k'iA tf't' asv>-V«'^ 

7 'I », ■. li '^litk''. . • .w‘ '(lie tTiw ■Tl.> *?■ • ' 

u ., . . . '■ ■ f;,V. ' • ■ , .• , 




>■ 

f • 

r! 



^I - » *« ’•■ iJ, K -. ' • 

. ; ■>. .. .,. ■ '■ y -AAlr. ' 

* . * « ,•’> .11'. » • 








Ci ^.‘•t.. 


• ’ 'A* VVl • / V. 4.A i .V.. 2iJ 





> ,- ■ ■!;.• .; .^ki. ^ jp. , : • . . ■ ' ,. 

i “‘i' 'TV ■'? ' n *■ '>■' ■ 




1 * 


m , _ . . __________ 

• ' '■■ * ■ if-' ^ ■ 

'■yfr-r J™ ’ 

.••;.o • -rf' 

' . 

^. 51 c v^*’ ■*- ' ' 


,> 


4 .y 



'.t;-;:, •: t^v. ^ 

■ ■' :s»’ •■>::•' 

■■ ’ •.- ' ';■-•■ 

’ ’ ~ ^ ^ ^ i ► f / ^ 0 ^ - ^ 

^ :V •' *' fiT '••• ^ 

■‘: :,^k^ ’ i 

■ ' f' ’ ^ ^ ‘ > 

4 •» • ' 




y c \ -x ■ * :» 'y}' 

' ’^ vS‘ ■ '"’ 

■•» '. ■ ■ *, ' 

>^ Jt^:: ' v ’ . #4. 

irafes.- 


ji- 


?/ 




tv X- 


' t 


\Tk 


;iV‘ S 




/.•’A 


.iy;:hV'r^‘ V' •■■■ ■ ■■>■ -V ' , ,- _ :-.' 


.V V.''' ' ' ■' '■ ' 

»f • ■■ > ' : ' , • . ' : SL,'’ ' 


.. '.• '" V 

■<:'■ t 

• W’. V,? .\L'.-^’' 

■ ■, . ■■ V* .-'V-: '-i 














'V'-S* 


% 




1 * • ^ ^ ^ . »'-.* .* 4 s 'r ■ •. “* ■-.•-•«• - * ' •-“ \u#v4«lfl- ♦ K 

■ 'v ■ '^ - ■ ■'■ "■ ■' ■ . •■•■^^•^ .V 




> - •.- 


: . '1 r*. \ ' ^ . 

'•■ *■ '> ySv- 






^ 4 ' 


A 


V 


i 


f 




/' ■ 





A" 

t • 


- • ■;> 

' ^ • *A A Vi '* B 


^iSf i V 


, k 




• N 






M 


•t‘ . - ^ ' 


i .- ‘ - • * * 

^V‘ / .H 

h'‘- ^ 



r-.A^.i v-My ’J ' 

■* ■ * ' "■ . • '•* ' 4 * id 

■'.; , ■■'•',■ 'v’i^ 

• .\ . . N 




.• ;m. _ ..V Jl 

'-•■ ‘T, o * “^4 


4 


J. *'• 




,fc' *•’»'*. 



• ' • / 'f •' ‘r '^■- *• 

- • . • .*.• i / s, 7 ' 















" .*• 


A 




♦ 1 *. 





I » -^ • 

.> . 


* » 


v* . '>r.''. 

• 4 V’ . .V'.Vi- 





■ » » * 


i-v*** V*” 

i'f'Lfi’-fd. *' , 


• • 











I 


'i'. , 4 f- ' ‘ii ' 






' ‘ ..J 

rev V ♦t • • t. 




* T' s\ 


. *iUM 'v> •-», , 


■N&LLi *. 




- ' 


i •- 


i I 






' < 


' • 

* if 




•'» »/ 

. J J» • 


' • v Id 

\ . Va , 



Lr ‘^. . * ; V--.' - V . ' 






c » >, 

ST ^ V A • ^ M ■ ■ ^ * 

|}^ir;’if''; : 

bX.^-' ■%. 


4* 


\ 

V i 




' M,' 


• t 

.%■ 


• •>* % 



• *^ 


• , 4 

■ >* 






, -4 


' • '■ 


.ii\ . ' ^ 




^ \ I- . 

^ ^ . m 


V * ' '^s’’ ■ "' 

» /.HH • k' WM ' ‘ ’T^^W/* ‘ -t*! 


'N .. »■ 


r 


; ‘-'t? '?%( 


d“« 


i. (i' r'f ' 


. . '..AV. 


.>3&i -• 


-■•♦■■ <.tf. • '. . 

• //■’/•M -i 





• ' 4 '.^ 


• . I 

/ •. 


;1 


■ - oNTiw^ >' '■ ' ’"V'il 








LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





